2018 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY: Press for Progress.

I join the rest of the world to celebrate every woman on this special day.

All women, being a daughter, sister, wife or mother should be treated with care, love and respect. In fact, after God; women is the next on the list of what I cannot live without.

Growing among four ladies expose me more to the nature of women, the elements they are made of and what they are capable of doing.

Personally, women around me have contributed and still contributing positively to whom I am as I journey to stardom. I can boldly say that women are encouragers, influencer, lover, caregiver, motivator, inspirer and provider.

With the aforementioned virtues, women don’t need gender equality activism to show or proof their worth to the world. All they need to do is to spring into action and tap into their potentials, the result will speak volume and earn our women better results.

May discussion may not alley with this year theme, but I see it as opportunity express my opinion about what I notice some women rights activists are doing wrong.

There is a big difference between gender equity and gender equality, just as there is a difference between the real meaning feminism theory and the idea of the modern advocators of gender equality.

Feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.  It is the advocacy of women’s rights based on the equality of the sexes. That is, there shouldn’t be discrimination between the male gender and the female gender, rather everyone should have access to tools and facilities that can enable them to achieve their individual goals and succeed in life.

The above explanation about feminism theory shows that feminism mean well for everyone and it’s a way to promote a healthy family lifestyle and a tranquil society. For instance, the advocacy for gender equality by feminists has helped people in our part of the world to know that there is no difference between male children and female children, education of both genders are expedient and both can rise to the top if adequately equipped.

Therefore, I wish to infer that Feminism is all about Gender equity which means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs; this is basically different from the opinion of the modern day Advocates of Gender Equality which goes beyond equal representation, but which is strongly tied to women's rights; while creating the notion that women should live independently of men.

Where the modern day advocate for female equality miss it is that Equality is different from Sameness. For the fact that everyone should be at the same level doesn’t mean everyone’s needs are same. What they ought to advocate for is equity and this is desirable (that the world should give to the women same rights as men have as human beings) not sameness.

I wish I can make this simpler. Let’s imagine a situation where a family is set to have dinner, equality will mean a situation where everyone takes the same share of the food, while equity is when everyone takes according to his/her needs. Cleared? One more!

You should have thought about the positioning of the athletes when they are set on the track, have you ever wonder why some are at the back from the left-hand side and another at the front from the right-hand side? It is because the person at the left has a shorter distance to cover than the contestant at the right. Yeah! Now you know.

Advocating for sameness with the male gender has unconsciously put an imprint of hated in the subconsciousness of our women, and this has led to a huge loses in the value of our family life which is reflecting in our societies, and causing the universe a deteriorating domicile for mankind.

Below are few consequences and tools of advocacy of gender sameness

·        Baby mamas

·        Slay queens

·        Lesbianism

·        Spousal rape

·        Separate/single mothers

·        Divorce

·        Emotional instability

These and much others are vices that advocacy of gender sameness has brought to us and they are really eating deep into our societal decency and moral values.

I, Ibiloro O. Michael pledge to always support the women around me to build up their self-esteem and believe they can achieve whatever they set their mind on without seeing men as threat or competitors, rather as support TO PRESS FOR PROGRESS.