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Published: March 11th 2012
When I was asked recently, “What is the status of women like here? I’ve heard it’s quite bad,” by some Irish visitors we were hosting I was pretty taken aback, and not just because I had always thought that as I was born with something hanging between my legs I was unqualified to answer such a question. My response probably made her realise that she should never ask a man such a question again, “ermm…..yes it’s bad....but then it’s a bit more complicated because they have lots of women MPs.” Hardly the cutting insight she was looking for into the position of women in Ugandan society.
What I was trying to get at, however, was that gender relations can be looked at in many different ways. In the home and the community the position of women would, and does, horrify most Westerners. As you walk into a Baganda home women will slump to the floor to greet you. Early on I would sometimes try to haul people up but this just seemed to make it more humiliating for the both of us. Whilst this practice is fading out in more ‘modern’ homes I would guess it is still expected in around 95% of the Baganda. In more rural areas women and children will sit on the floor to eat with the man of the house, and his guest if he has one, will have stools.
People from Northern tribes have sometimes argued that gender inequality is much greater in the Bantu tribes. A Langi told me that a husband could never beat his wife in his culture as the community would not allow it. Instead he must go to his wife’s eldest brother who will decide on her fate. Women also ride bicycles and motorbikes there. In traditional Karamajong culture there were women’s council in each pastoralist community (Kraal) who, with the elders’ and youth councils, would make decisions for their Kraal. However, these largely died out during the conflict. The (very limited) knowledge I have of Karamajong gender relations is that men control all the household resources, domestic violence is rife and that if your husband is killed then you are socially pressured to marry his brother.
Despite considerable evidence to support the fact that women in Uganda are second class citizens there is another side. Women are well represented at the top of Uganda society, whether that representation is meaningful or not is another debate. Female representation is guaranteed at all levels of government as people elect women councillors at district and sub-county. Whilst this system is perhaps an acknowledgement that women’s issues would not be a concern of ‘ordinary’ decision-making bodies it nonetheless assures that women will participate in government and decision-making.
Whilst women councillors and MPs have been criticised for doing little for women’s rights it is arguably women that have been at the forefront of protest and change. High profile examples are ‘Mama Mabira’, Betty Nambooze who led the protests against the proposed gazetting of Mabira Forest and managed to do the seemingly inconceivable, and get Museveni to step down. Another is Jane Kuka who led the fight against Female Genital Mutilation amongst the Sabiny people in Eastern Uganda and whose work led to the outlawing of the practice in Uganda. Even Janet Museveni as Minister for Karamoja, who has a fair share of critics in the West, seems to have done more for the region than her predecessors put together.
In terms of the labour market at least, horizontal gender segregation is much lower here than it is in the UK. There is a strong argument that this is because women do everything here but it is not rare to see women doing manual work in construction, security or agriculture in the way that it is in the UK. Even in more modern high-skilled industries like IT and engineering there seems to be a greater gender balance than in Britain.
Like many questions I get asked about Uganda I always wonder what the response would be if it was reversed. A Ugandan may say, “What’s the situation of women in UK like? I have seen it’s quite bad. You have only 22% of MPs are women, only 14% of the cabinet and 13% of local councils are led by women, less than 14% of board members in FTSE 100 companies are women, and less that 10% of the construction workforce. 35% of our parliament is female and 40% of councillor positions are held by women. What can we do to help empower your women?"
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Beebwa
non-member comment
Matembe
You forgot to tell them about Mrs Miria Matembe. As a firespitting MP in the 80s, she almost single handedly persuaded parliament to ammend the Penal Code, raising the age of sexual consent for girls from 14 to 18 years. Now it an offence (defilement) if you have sex witha girl below 18 yrs an this has helped a bit in keeping girls in school. Also, she had wanted stronger punishment for rape/defilement convicts: decapitation of the offending organ. But she's a mother to 3 sons, and was persuaded by male MPs to drop this painful option.