Embracing the Power of ICTs

This photo shows a group of young African women from Southern Africa (Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), embracing ICTs and recognising the role that ICTs play in the promoting womens rights at the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) in Johannesburg South Africa.
The Feminist Tech Exchange brought nine women’s rights activists  to share and build knowledge and skills on communication and ICTs from a feminist perspective. The exchange was convened as a way to strengthen women’s collective organizing power through the use of ICTs.  It created a platform for women activists to explore how different forms of technology can support, strengthen or disrupt power and allowed for a greater understanding of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women.  
The FTX was organised by  Womens Net and JASS. Women’s Net is a feminist organization that works to advance gender equality and justice in South Africa, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) while JASS is an international feminist organization dedicated to building and strengthening women’s voice, visibility and collective organizing power­­­­.

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Stopping the Violence Against Women -Brutalized Wife Of The Deposed Deji Of Akure Dies

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Media and Women

Half the world's population, but not with half the share of wealth, well being and opportunity. Women do not get half the media's attention, or an equal voice in expression - only 22 percent of the voices you hear and read in the news today are women's. How do we re-address this huge imbalance - covering emerging and frontline issues while asking an often forgotten question: What does this mean for women and girls? Let's discuss!

Equality!!!

Gender equality is, first and foremost, a human right. Women are entitled to live in dignity and in freedom from want and from fear. Empowering women is also an indispensable tool for advancing development and reducing poverty.

Empowered women contribute to the health and productivity of whole families and communities and to improved prospects for the next generation. The importance of gender equality is underscored by its inclusion as one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. Gender equality is acknowledged as being a key to achieving the other seven goals.

Yet discrimination against women and girls - including gender-based violence, discrimination, reproductive, and harmful traditional practices - remains the most pervasive and persistent form of inequality. Women and girls bear enormous hardship during and after humanitarian emergencies, especially armed conflicts.


Young Women Leaders let our voices be heard, let’s make a change or be part of this change, let’s fight a cause that will better our tomorrow and the tomorrow of others.

Lets Not be Afraid to Speak Out!

I have come to the realization that despite the fact that gender issues and the width of the gender gap in Africa differ from region to region and between cultures, the reasons behind these gender disparities remain essentially the same.  Social stereotyping, gender prejudices, patriarchal systems, traditions as well as the fear of male reprisal which are oftentimes protected by legal systems and misguided ideologies, are usually the underlying factors that lie behind gender inequality.

It must thus be noted that most of these factors or elements are aspects of  African cultures that define the position of young women in African societies across the world.

I feel that Although African cultural and traditional practices subjecting women to male dominance continuously tend to hinder young African women’s progress in bridging the gender gaps in their societies, given the opportunity, young women in Africa have the capacity to drive the cultural changes that can ultimately redefine their patriarchal societies and therefore their own status.

By becoming aware of their rights and finding ways to speak out against gender injustice at all levels, young women in Africa have an opportunity to move cultures and societies forward and thus change their own status. And although this may prove to be a long term and complex process faced with many difficulties and even danger in some African societies, the idea must still be given strong impetus by the networking and mutual learning between young African women leaders and activists worldwide.

So lets not be afraid to make the changes we oughta make to  uplift our positions in society and create societies that are gender balanced!

Taking a Stand Against Practices That Harm Women

Throughout the world, practices that undermine the well-being of women endure. But like slavery and foot-binding, they constitute egregious violations of basic human rights.

• At least 130 million women have been forced to undergo female genital mutilation/cutting. Another 2 million are at risk each year from this degrading and dangerous practice.


• Killings in the name of 'honour' take the lives of thousands of young women every year, mainly in Western Asia, North Africa and parts of South Asia.
  
  
• Forced early marriage of young girls or adolescents is another practice that can cause lifelong psychological as well as physical problems, especially those resulting from early childbearing.

In most industrialized societies, although gender-based violence is officially condemned, it persists, implicitly sanctioned by messages in mass media.

In some developing countries, practices that subjugate and harm women - such as wife-beating, killings in the name of honour, female genital mutilation/cutting and dowry deaths - are condoned as being part of the natural order of things. Throughout much of Asia, a preference for male children results in the neglect and sometimes infanticide of girls, or their elimination by abortion in places where prenatal tests are available to determine the sex of the foetus.

And as conflicts among ethnic groups rage, women and girls have increasingly become pawns of war, and face rape and forced pregnancies. FGM/FGC, coerced sex and early marriage are also factors in the spread of HIV to women.

Eradicating long-standing traditional practices does not happen overnight. One way to begin, though, is by information and advocacy that raises public awareness and changes the climate of public opinion.