Advocating for boy inclusion in girl matters
What you need to know:
To everyone who has moved a step in this direction… You owe yourself an applause for I know, it takes one’s courage to take matters upon thy hands.
Dar es Salaam. First things first. I would like to acknowledge and appreciate all the efforts made by everyone who has been in this space before me.
To everyone who has moved a step in this direction… You owe yourself an applause for I know, it takes one’s courage to take matters upon thy hands.
On this year’s International Women Day, I would like for us to re-think the position of the girl child and, then after, enhance the scope to the Woman. Being a young woman, I have come to a realization that it can be hard to achieve the level of equality we aspire if the boy child is excluded from the girl world.
I cannot behave like a woman in a world full of men that criticize what I do. In so doing, there exists a probable loss of woman potential in areas of decision making which goes a long way to differentiate angles of thinking.
We hold women forums with minimal men inclusion, we educate girls on the importance of hygiene and menstruation without actively teaching boys how to support their sisters and peers during that time. We advocate for girl rights forgetting it is the boy who discriminates the girl. We go out there and deal with men, get discriminated by men, hold conversations with men and have to fight for the right to hold positions on various platforms against the man. So if there is one way to tackle gender inequality is by viewing this problem from the other side of the equation and get more men on the frontline – fighting for women.
My intention is to call to action social change makers to advocate for boy inclusion in girl matters.
Let’s teach our young men what it is to live in a world that advocates for rights of the girl child, and how it is they are called to support. Let’s hold conversations about women issues with more men included. We want to see a world where inclusion is at its best and men are on the forefront of advocating for women issues.
Happy international Women’s Day!
Ms Christine Lucas is a social change maker. E-mail: [email protected]
