Overplaying The Feminist Card

We are falling in the trap of correcting a mistake by a mistake. The same trap that western countries are struggling to rectify after discovering that their militant gender activists had pushed them into extreme feminism. Their girls are doing well in class while the boys have lost interest. I fully believe that women have every right to everything men are enjoying. They have the right to a good education, leadership positions and are capable of doing and achieving whatever men can. This is an undeniable fact and should be encouraged.

There's a need to balance these things though. Pushing one side of the gender divide at the expense of the other would create a similar scene equal to the one they are trying to fight against. All revolutions are started by extremists, but there comes a time to sober up and begin balancing things up. I believe the feminist agenda has been pushed too far. This is having negative consequences in our social political set up. Men are beginning to feel left out and feel threatened.

There was a time when the general trend was to educate and promote men and boys at the expense of girls. This was bad and the campaign to balance the equation was a welcome development. Women and girls had to be encouraged and helped to change and become achievers. All steps taken in this direction are helpful and a welcome development.

The only problem is that the gender issue has been pushed too much and too far. The gender message has been satisfactorily hammered home. Keeping our foot on the acceleration pedal on the subject is already affecting our education system in these negative areas.

1. SCHOOL DISCIPLINE - Discipline in our education system has gone down because among other things, men are being pushed out of the teaching profession as ladies are taking over. Children do not only respect men, they fear them. Replacing male teachers with females has resulted in the erosion of school discipline.

2. RURAL SCHOOLS – Rural schools are becoming teacher starved as most female teachers are flocking in urban schools allegedly “following their husbands”. It's very common these days to find five female teachers queuing for a single class on an urban school, while rural schools are being shunned.

3. FREQUENT ABSENTEEISM. Female teachers have to do some domestic chores, take their children to the hospital when sick in addition to that important maternity leave. In all these circumstances, what will happen if the school is loaded with female teachers only?

We need to understand that some issues are dynamic and should be given ample time. Cramming them down the Malawian throat may have dire consequences in the long run. Are we aware that America got its independence in 1776 and up to now they have never been led by a woman? Do we know that the first female head of a major motor company in the USA is Mary Barra who took over in January 2014?

You may be interested to know that women make up only 16.8 % of the House of Representative and 16 % of the Senate. So where does our 50 -50 campaign come from? Do you know that though the USA got its independence in 1776, women started voting in 1920, in Britain they started in 1918 while in France they only started in 1944? Was it imposed on them? We need to be patted on the back for the tremendous achievements in such a short period of time. Gender commandoes should slow down.

Men play a vital role in all sectors of life, they should not be replaced but complimented and that time should be allowed for this to take place. Let's play it safe as it affects not only the nation but the church as well. The pew is already shaking.