Women
THE First Lady of Taraba, Mrs. Anna Ishaku, on Thursday underscored the need for gender parity in a bid to promote equity and sustainable development.
Ishiaku spoke at the 2022 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Women Forum (NBAWF) held at the Civic Centre, Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the conference is “The Invisible Hands of Gender Bias: Championing Collective Change”.
The NBAWF’s theme is in commemoration of the International Women’s Day 2022 with the general campaign theme “Breaking the Bias”.
According to Ishaku in her goodwill message, there is bias when a person receives a different treatment because of his gender, adding that this plays out in our everyday activities even from birth.
“Generally and traditionally boys are preferred to girls; the girls are brought up to do house chores and serve even their younger brothers.
“She is expected to play with dolls while the boys play with gun toys; she is expected to be well behaved, to marry earlier, and sometimes denied education as it is termed a waste of money.
“She is termed not good enough to be a leader or to assume great responsibilities; she is refused certain jobs because girls are termed too emotional for those jobs.
“She is seen as the weaker vessel and refused her share of her parents inheritance. All these can be classified under the invisible hands of gender bias,” she said.
According to Ishaku, these are the ways gender bias influences our behaviour and give legitimacy to these patterns of inequality within and across our society.
She urged that constant interactions such as the present forum be organised to sustain the tempo around issues of gender bias, adding that routine advocacy and sensitisation was also a way out.
“If we continue with these kinds of meetings and discussions, definitely one day we will be able to break the bias,” she said.
In her goodwill message, Imo First Lady, Mrs. Chioma Uzodinma, described the NBAWF as being one of the notable fora for women in the society.
According to her, the forum has fought and struggled to help women attain their current level.
Recognising other notable women in the legal space who she said had facilitated the struggle for women, she expressed delight that women had continued to move at a remarkable spate.
“I am proud that in our nation exists a space where women within the same community and with the same issues and same enthusiasm to heal the broken system, coexists.
“Our individual goal to impact the women within and outside our reach becomes more attainable when we have others around us pushing for the same results.
“I am optimistic that as we continue to identity and provide innovative solutions to the key issues that affect us such as the gender paying gap, the gender-based violence and sexual harassment in the work place, the equality we seek will become a reality,” she said
Uzodinma described the NBAWF as being a powerful group of sisters from different parts of the country who are aligned with the same mission of being a mouth piece of women in Nigeria.
She congratulated the forum for the apt theme of the conference and wished them a successful deliberation.
In the same vein, Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Mrs Noimot Salako-Oyedele, noted that a handful of notable women in the society have striven to keep the door “ajar”, even after their contributions to society.
She noted that more women should tap into the legacies and seek to do more rather than only sitting back to applaud efforts of women breaking these bias.
“Women can do it but in what we do we are not getting the numbers that we want.
“So we have to find a way to ensure that in any place we find ourselves, we support ourselves; that is the first step,“ she said.
Salako-Oyedele said that once we begin to do this and we get more women to show what they could do, it would be a good milestone in breaking the bias.
Besides, she described women as holding the fabric of society, adding that they were also very strategic in making financial decisions at home.
“Women should also be allowed to derive the benefit of society: So, as individuals let us support our women,” she said
NAN reports that the conference had in attendance high court judges, educationists, as well as senior and junior lawyers.
NAN
– Mar. 31 2022 @ 17:30 GMT | BE
Tags: Anna Ishaku Nigerian Bar Association Women Forum
