Gender inequity is a problem that can only be solved by men as it is a problem caused by them in the first place, says University of Fiji vice-chancellor Professor Shaista Shameem.
While addressing staff members and students of the university at an occasion that simultaneously celebrated the festival of Holi, My World Freedom Day and International Women’s Day, she said men should take full responsibility for ensuring gender equality at home, in the community and at work.
Prof Shameem said International Women’s Day speeches usually concentrated on the dire situation of women who, everywhere, faced limited access to opportunity, inequality in pay and conditions, violence, lack of political presence and poverty.
“But this year, it was time to ‘take the bull by the horns’ and call out all men, ‘every single one’, to take full responsibility for actively promoting gender equality in all spheres of existence — at work and in the home, in politics, with the community, and in whatever environment they could,” Prof Shameem said.
“The problem was never women; it was always men.
“We can sanitise this problem by calling it ‘patriarchy’ or whatever anthropological term, but the reality is that men, collectively, have always benefited from women’s disadvantage.
“There were many men who had not remained silent and had done the best they could to advocate for women’s rights but these had all been adjuncts to women’s voices and a minority,” she said.
Prof Shameem said she could not recall any campaign by men to eliminate gender inequality.
“All men, in all spheres of life, should now together or individually take full responsibility for eliminating discrimination, prejudice, and violence against women and children which are all rampant in Fiji.
“The same problem is evident world over but since we are in Fiji we should start with our own country and lead the way.”
Prof Shameem challenged all men to make International Women’s Day and My Freedom Day meaningful by committing to a strategy for taking on full responsibility for eliminating gender inequality in Fiji.
