[ 2019-03-08 ]

Think equal, build smart, innovate for change – International Women’s Day 2019
Every single year without fail International
Women’s Day wells up emotions of joy and
gladness - an overwhelming sense of celebration,
bolstered with joy and triumph.

The theme of this year’s International
Women’s Day – think equal, build
smart, innovate for change - is uniquely fitting
and especial. Calling for us all to think equal
individually, as a corporation, a government, a
nation in all spheres of life, we are reminded of
the need to confer socially and legally equal
status to men and women. When we think equal, we
build smart. As we build smarter institutions,
smarter societies, and smarter nations. When we
recognise the humanity, capability and ability in
men and women we give room for the advancement of
our world

Over the past few decades, I have come to
appreciate the diverse challenges women face, and
have overcome, as well as the struggles of agency
much more. In so many cultures women have limited
agency. But yetmany women have determined that
despite having less agency they will, they must,
pursue that honourable personal, professional and
societal change that disrupts gender stereotypes
of all forms. Many pursue these in the business
sector, in medicine, in politics, in science and
technology, in the creative arts – the list
goes on – and they do so in peace and quiet
courage.

Others, regrettably, have to pursue these in the
presence of fear and danger. Whether in quiet
peace or in the presence of danger, pioneering
women have pursued their ideals, the change they
want, and their personal aspirations relentlessly
- very often positively impacting society, despite
the fact thatno one in their family, no one in
their sector or industry, may have ever done
something like that before.

In the process, they liberate many tens, hundreds
and thousands of other women to advocate for the
voice of women, go where women have not dared
previously to go, and or to pursue their own
personal aspirations and ambitions despite the
odds.

It wasn’t so long ago that women were
legally prohibited from enjoying what are in
essence universal basic rights. In the UK, where
I grew up, whilst a lot has changed in the past
100 years, it wasn’t so long ago that women
couldn’t open a bank account or apply for a
loan in their own name. It wasn’t so long
ago that women could not vote. It wasn’t
so long ago that women could not work in the legal
profession or in the civil service. It
wasn’t so long ago that women could not
inherit or bequeath property on the same terms as
men, and it was not so long ago that women could
not legally claim equal pay for doing the same
work as men. Yes, a lot has changed around the
world in the last 100 years, but we know that even
today the gender pay gap (i.e. the difference
between what men and women are paid for the same
or similar jobs) is still prevalent in many
countries across the globe.

But for the triumphs of women, those that we enjoy
today, other women fought. Other women gathered
the courage to speak up, the courage the take the
risk of being the misnomer that dared to ask for
respect, recognition, and equality. And that is
one of the many reasons we celebrate International
Women’s Day – how far we have fought
for diversity and inclusion, and what we have
achieved in diversity and inclusion.

The plight of women in business is of especial
interest to me. The decision to focus on
supporting especially women entrepreneurs with
business and executive coaching a few years ago
was one borne out of fear. I was terrified at the
thought that lack of access – whether that
be to finance, professional know-how or even lack
of self-belief - would deprive women of the
opportunity and ability to compete competitively
in an arena where they were talented and capable,
but yet the prevailing infrastructure and their
gender inadvertently or ever so subtly precluded
them from competing at all or successfully
competing. In the long term it would be society
in fact who would lose out – and that we
should not allow.

I want to particularly celebrate social innovators
this day, and especially celebrate all the female
climate-smart entrepreneurs and the women
innovators in our community – from those
generating electricity from solar power for rural
communities in Ghana, to those building
climate-smart cattle ranches, to those ensuring
that less trees are cut down to make firewood by
using biomass to make smokeless, green fuel
charcoal briquettes. Theirs is a sample of much
needed innovations and ingenuity that surrounds us
– much needed innovation that if we
continue to deploy gender stereotypes and impede
women from participating in all spheres of life,
society loses out or delays much needed economic
and social advancementthrough all forms of social
barriers

International women’s day is for all of us
to celebrate. Men and women. It’s a day
for humanity.

Ruka Sanusi is the Executive Director of the Ghana
Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), a pioneering
green economy business incubator housed at Ashesi
University, funded through a grant from the World
Bank. Ruka is also the Founder and Principal of
Alldens Lane, a boutique consulting firm focused
on providing advisory and coaching services to
women-led businesses across Africa.

Source - Myjoyonline

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