Women's Leadership

Women in the South East states of Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi have advocated for equal representation of women in leadership positions in the country.

They spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Enugu Ebonyi and Awka, as part of Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary.

Speaking, Mrs. Onyinye Mamah, the Executive Director of Heroine Women Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Enugu, said she had always advocated for the equitable representation of women in leadership.

Mamah stated that women were grossly underrepresented in global political leadership.

She said, “For so many years in Nigeria, we have been hammering on the inclusion of women in politics.

“Here, when few women get involved, it looks like a favour; what we are looking for is a time when women will be properly included in the scheme of things.”

According to Mamah, the reserve seat bill was one of the most beautiful bills one could imagine in recent times.

“This is because it gives room for carved out positions which would be contested for by women only, ” she said.

She, however, said that the inclusion of women in politics was something that would gather a lot of groups, institutions, strength and improvement.

Full article here.

Women leaders, policymakers, and advocates from Nigeria and across Africa at the 2025 Voice of Women Conference & Awards (VOW), have renewed calls for gender equity and inclusive governance.

Speaking at the event held in Abuja, Convener of the Conference and Awards, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, described VOW2025 as “a platform where women’s voices continue to shape Nigeria’s future”.

She noted that the movement transcends borders and aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 on gender equality and inclusive leadership.

The Convener also stressed the urgency of deepening female political representation through collective action, particularly at the grassroots where women remain the largest and most powerful voting bloc.

“It is time we transform this individual voting strength into a unified force. When women support women across all divides, we become the decisive power that can shape governance,” she said.

Okewale-Sonaiya urged for the swift passage of the Reserved Seats Bill, describing it as vital to Nigeria’s democratic integrity and gender balance.

Full article here.

Shortly before the start of this year's 20th anniversary edition of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon hosted a high-level women's forum comprising foreign ministers, senior representatives of international organisations and members of national parliaments and the European Parliament. Their discussions focused on decency in politics, a highly relevant matter in the current climate of rising authoritarianism.

The distinguished participants included Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže and Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska, MEP Irena Joveva, The Baroness Helic of the British House of Lords, Vice President of the National Assembly Meira Hot, Ambassador of the EU to Kazakhstan Aleška Simkić and Head of Delegation of the EU to Afghanistan Veronika Bošković Pohar.

"Since we are few in number, it is particularly important that we set a good example for young people in order to strengthen trust in politics and encourage women to assume leadership roles," underlined the Slovenian Foreign Minister. The distinguished participants concurred that female politicians, irrespective of their political affiliations, must provide mutual support, address complex challenges collectively and conduct themselves in a dignified, respectful and empathetic manner. They agreed that it is imperative for them to uphold and strengthen political standards, particularly by insisting on the fundamental principles of respectful interpersonal relations and humanity.

Full article here.

In times of great political turmoil, it can be instructive and reassuring to read about people who have been in similar situations, and have persevered in fighting for something better. While writing my new book about the contributions Black women have made in the global struggle for human rights, I was humbled to see, over and over, how many of these women did not come from rich families, or hold positions of great power, or even have all that much education. But they did the hard and dangerous work required, day in and day out, because they believed in equal rights for everyone, around the world.

Closer to home, I’m recommending here five books that everyone should read about Black women in the United States who have persevered against great and terrible odds, to try to make the world better for the next generation. Their stories are just the inspiration we need today.

Full article here.

In her rightfully celebrated 1969 article, “The Political Economy of Women’s Liberation,” Margaret Benston articulated several of the enduring themes and theoretical insights of feminist theories, especially those developed by socialist and Marxist feminists. For example, she located the material basis of women’s secondary status in their responsibility for the production of use values for home consumption and their ensuing economic dependence upon male breadwinners; the effects of domestic responsibilities on women’s opportunities; and the material conditions for women’s liberation, that is, equal access to employment and an end to the privatized nature of housework and child rearing.2

As a graduate student in the late 1960s, I struggled to make sense of the notion that women were oppressed as women and that men or patriarchy were the source of their oppression—an idea that, at the time, seemed strange to me.3 In contrast, Benston’s perspective that the causes of the secondary status of women were structural, rooted in the capitalist economy, and resulted in women’s responsibility for child care and the production of use values for family consumption, made sense to me. It showed how the functioning of the capitalist economy, given that the organization of social and biological reproduction remained still in a “premarket stage,” placed working-class men and women in different structural positions. This, I inferred, gave some men power over women. Working-class men had to earn wages to survive economically, whereas working-class women, whether married or unmarried, could theoretically either work for wages or work at home, unpaid and dependent on the wages of the male head of the household.4 Abstractly, under capitalism, being an unpaid domestic worker is for working-class women a functional alternative to earning wages.5 In retrospect, having read her article again, I can say that my account of the oppression of women and conceptualization of what, in the early 1970s, I called the mode of reproduction, owes much to Benston’s views about the “structural definition of women” and the household as a place of production and reproduction.6

Full article here.