Welcoming the Wide-spread Wisdom of Women
By Natalie Sifuma
In late September 2017, the meaning of solidarity was etched in my mind in a different way than the Oxford dictionary had previously done so. That month the TIME magazine released an exceptional monthly issue titled ‘Firsts: Women Who Are Changing The World’, and like many readers, I was thrilled and proud to see the list of 100 amazing, talented and professional women who were doing the work, changing tides, and giving an advanced positive spin to the term ‘badass’.
Only, as I went through the list, my joy was interrupted by the lack of geographical representation. Of the women featured, I recognized and appreciated the racial diversity, which was a win in a decade where racism and sexism was still prevalent in most Global North states. But my enthusiasm was left hanging when I realised that all women listed were native to America, Europe and Asia, with the exception of one — Ilhan Omar, whose dual nationality straddles American and Somali.
If this was an inclusive celebration of women who had changed the world, surely there was more than one indigenous African woman who had contributed to this. Maybe the list should have been 250 women, maybe it could have gone up to 500 and we would have read more stories of the diligence, resilience, and determination of African, American, Asian, Australian, Caribbean and European women.
No doubt the TIME had contributed to the need to spotlight and celebrate women in all their diversity, but it had also left a gap; and having seen this crevice, a former colleague and I decided to take our own spin and bring it closer to our reality as two Kenyan women who wanted to know “Who are the Kenyan women who could have been included in the list?”
From it came my first womanist project that wholeheartedly – through stories – honoured Kenyan women who broke glass ceilings, shaped various industries based on their experiences, and ultimately shifted the narrative around African women as professionals in different industries.
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You see in most of Africa we still have a challenge of acknowledging the crucial roles women play in society — from grassroots level through to top levels in national and regional leadership. On a global scale, there is still lack of representation, and the term ‘diversity’ is not actualised to its full meaning. Fortunately, this is a tide that has been and continues to change thanks to small and large movements that continue to gain momentum. And because of convenings like Women Deliver, this diversity, inclusion and representation becomes all the more important.
This year, the Women Deliver 2023 Conference (#WD2023) took place in Kigali, the vibrant capital of Rwanda, that boasts diversity and notable hospitality. But perhaps what made Rwanda the most ideal and first African country to host this event was its position as the leading country globally with a female-majority parliament, with 60% women parliamentarians.
Looking into Rwanda’s history in the lead up to the conference helped me understand how this came to be. Despite Rwanda’s bleak history in the grip of colonialism, then a genocide that threatened to tear the nation apart, the country was rebuilt on the wisdom, forbearance and gentleness of women. Today, Rwanda is one of the most orderly and safest countries in the world; but is also leading the way in ensuring policies are favourable to the plights and strengths of women, girls, children, marginalised communities and vulnerable people.
With a buzzing six-day #WD2023 schedule, I needed all the strength to attend an array of sessions and meet different women (and men) from around the world doing work of amplifying, safeguarding and financing the needs, efforts and initiatives led by and focused on women and girls. The long and short of this is, by meeting diverse groups of people and learning about the incredible work they were doing, exhaustion was the furthest thing from my mind.
Session at the Kigali Convention Centre
A reaffirming takeaway was how integral addressing the climate crisis is to curbing most of the existing gender-based challenges. For instance, if global leaders today are firm in their decision to reduce the amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, the global boiling era we are in will gradually cool down. Subsequently, over time, women in drought-prone areas won’t have to walk longer distances in search of water for their families and communities because water will be more accessible due to consistent weather patterns. They also won’t be at risk of gender-based violence, or be as vulnerable to the effects of heat on their reproductive health because of dehydration or hormonal stress.
For those living in floodplains, their agricultural investments will be less affected, nor will they forcefully be evicted from their dwellings due or lose their lives to heavy downpour. There will also be a significantly reduced number of child brides.
But then there’s a leadership challenge: majority of the global leaders — particularly in the climate action spaces — are men. While they may have various professional strengths, most don’t have lived experiences of, nor do they represent half the world’s population. This unfortunately means that they aren’t well equipped to design policies that cater to those disproportionately affected by the current heat waves, drought and floods perturbing different parts of the world.
What #WD2023 did was create SPACES for issues such as these to be broadcasted for in-person and virtual awareness. By doing so, it created room for both empathy and knowledge building — but even more so, enabled all those fortunate to attend to be part of a global movement of SOLIDARITY with women and girls, shifting the narrative of having them portrayed as victims, but rather as the brains and muscle behind the SOLUTIONS to the myriad of challenges they face around the world.
Through this Conference, I witnessed presidents pledge to financially supporting women and girl-led movements, organisations committing to championing equality within their hierarchies, and individuals deciding to collaborate on projects that would amplify women in various ways.
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I end this with full certainty that the work we do at SHE Changes Climate — which is in tandem with the organising pillars of #WD2023 (Spaces, Solidarity and Solutions) — is and will continue to advocate for women in all their diversity as leaders in climate action, whether in their domestic households, native communities, local institutions and global governing bodies.
Women are the voices we need to hear and they are the leaders we need to have if we want a sustainable and equitable future.
PS – My gratitude goes out to Hafsat Abiola, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Pat Mitchell, Janet Mbugua, Rachel Temoi, Mary Robinson, Lilian Mbuthi, Dr. Maliha Khan, Kristina Wintermeier, and many others.
