EDITORIAL: Why do we hate women so much?
Time and again, we have written in this column about pretentious women empowerment gimmicks – such as the public relations stunt that is the zebra-styled deployments in political party structures and parliament.
Our contention has been that these cosmetic interventions have left the structural impediments to women empowerment unshaken, but the podium rhetoric in town is that women are being empowered in Namibia.
Job Amupanda, just like Winnie Moongo before him, has raised a crucial point about how employed women suffer financially once they take maternity leave. Many women have pushed themselves to the brink, taking just one month off instead of the usual three after bringing life into the world, so they can return to work quickly in order to safeguard their salaries. They pop out babies and return to work with fresh wounds!
This is a country that handsomely rewards suspended CEOs and other executives in public enterprises with full pay – sometimes for years - but paying a full salary to a postpartum woman for three months is where we draw the line. Why do we hate women so much?
Until recently, the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) paid its suspended CEO Hilya Nghiwete her full N$160 000 salary for 21 months. Namcor devotedly paid its former managing director Imms Mulunga his N$183 000 salary for 15 months while on suspension.
But women are having their salaries cut by up to 50% for the ‘crime’ of falling pregnant. Real women empowerment lies in scrapping oppressive policies such as this – and not in these superficial 50/50 gender balances, while our mothers' real wounds are left exposed to capitalist exploitation.
Our contention has been that these cosmetic interventions have left the structural impediments to women empowerment unshaken, but the podium rhetoric in town is that women are being empowered in Namibia.
Job Amupanda, just like Winnie Moongo before him, has raised a crucial point about how employed women suffer financially once they take maternity leave. Many women have pushed themselves to the brink, taking just one month off instead of the usual three after bringing life into the world, so they can return to work quickly in order to safeguard their salaries. They pop out babies and return to work with fresh wounds!
This is a country that handsomely rewards suspended CEOs and other executives in public enterprises with full pay – sometimes for years - but paying a full salary to a postpartum woman for three months is where we draw the line. Why do we hate women so much?
Until recently, the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) paid its suspended CEO Hilya Nghiwete her full N$160 000 salary for 21 months. Namcor devotedly paid its former managing director Imms Mulunga his N$183 000 salary for 15 months while on suspension.
But women are having their salaries cut by up to 50% for the ‘crime’ of falling pregnant. Real women empowerment lies in scrapping oppressive policies such as this – and not in these superficial 50/50 gender balances, while our mothers' real wounds are left exposed to capitalist exploitation.
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Namibian Sun
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