Back in the days when women had no voice and all they could do is be subjected to men, be constrained to household chores and so forth. Due to women empowerment they have been able to stand up for their rights and also run for seats in Parliament and their constituencies. The Law states that; women should be given equal opportunities, as men furthermore they are faced with challenges. I will state a few such; as lack of financial stability; in that they do not have enough funding to run for a seat.
Secondly lack of support from fellow women ;truly the writer of this quote was not wrong when he stated "women are their own worst enemies". Reason being, women tend to create a certain rivalry amongst each other and forget that they need each other in all aspects of life. If only women could support each other in what they do, then as a Nation we would be so ahead in terms of development. If we look at recent success stories of Women in Arabic Countries, they are now running for seats and winning because of the massive support given by their fellow women.Statitstics has shown that, approximately 52% of Kenya mainly consists of women population 47.1%being registered voters. Unfortunately they do not vote for their own fellow women.
Thirdly the Culture effect; this basically talks about the patriarchal society. We have been raised to view women as second to men. This perception that men are the only ones who rule, at the same time this has affected our young women who would want to lead our counties they cannot simply because of cultural influences per say.
Fourthly perception that women are fragile; sometime last year there was a joke going round, that if women rule the world there will be world War III. It might seem as a joke but if we keenly look at the negative side of the joke, it is abit sad and absurd to see that women are perceived that way in this time and age more women are trying to prove the society at large wrong. A good example would be Professor Olive Mugenda the Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor, she has proven to be very strong and self driven hence establishing a better foundation for the University. The late Professor Waangari Maathai was another influential and inspiring woman in the society, she stood her ground and because of that she was able to conserve trees for the future generations. When I look at this two examples they leave me to wonder what about a thousand women what can they do?
Lastly lack of equal opportunities this is very evident in the African Context whereby women are not recognized. The Kenyan law has highlighted clearly that, women should have 2/3 of representation in all leadership positions which is being acted upon.At the same time it is not equal everywhere when it comes to other jobs, men are given jobs which are perceived to be masculine at the expense of women. This is because they are believed to do the job better, which is not true nowadays women equally perform tasks better than men themselves.
In conclusion we need to support women in their leadership positions.