Women urged to fight for equality

Although important steps have been taken by Botswana's government to address gender inequalities, women still face many constraints entrenched in the legal system. "Women are still expected to stay at home and clean the house while the man goes to work. The Marriage Act states that a woman becomes a minor when she is married and there are no decisions which she can make without the consent of her husband," Mmamosweu Vivian Gunda, coordinator of the Women's NGO Coalition, told IRIN. "Even if a woman is working and has her own bank account, she cannot take out a loan from a commercial bank without the consent of her husband. But despite these difficulties, some women have managed to overcome the obstacles of living in a patriarchal society," she added. This week the United States Embassy in Gaborone honoured five pioneering women, to coincide with Women's History Month in the United States and International Women's Day on 8 March. The five women included former foreign minister Gaositwe Chiepe, Central Bank Governor Linah Mohohlo, Bamalete Paramount Chief Mosadi Seboko, head of the National AIDS coordinating agency Dr Banu Khana and High Court Judge Unity Dow. "These vanguard women leaders were trailblazers in the truest sense of the word," United States Ambassador Joseph Huggins told IRIN. Botswana has a constitutional prohibition against gender-based discrimination, but this is subject to an onerous number of exceptions with respect to adoption, marriage, divorce, death, burial, inheritance and other matters of personal law that limit women's opportunities in society. For example, the Citizenship Act of 1982, until amended in 1995, discriminated against married women by denying them the right to pass on Botswana citizenship to their children, irrespective of where they were born. The constitutionality of these provisions was succesfully challenged by High Court Judge Unity Dow and the amended provisions are now gender-neutral. "Women need to know that it is okay for them to challenge traditions that have been there for years," she told IRIN. According to official estimates, women also lag behind men in the labour force. Women constitute about 37 percent of the employed workforce and 25 percent of managers, although female-headed households account for a greater proportion of the population than their male counterparts. A study completed by the government in 1996 revealed that the poorest urban female-headed households commanded an average per capita disposable income that was a mere 46 percent of the income earned by the poorest urban male-headed households. On the political front Botswana has seen an increase in the number of women elected to Parliament, from 10 percent to 18 percent after the 1999 elections, when representation in the cabinet also rose from 16 percent to 25 percent. "It is time to discard the prejudices against women under the guise of culture. It is high time that humanity in general should realise that gender is no more a valid reason for discrimination than race, creed or religion," Central Bank Governor Linah Mohohlo said. Botswana has not signed and ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa 2003, adopted by the African Union in Mozambique in July of that year. The Protocol is regarded as complementary to the work of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.