A member of the Liberia African Women Leaders Network (ALWN) Chapter called on women across the country to work hard to change their status.
Dr. Evelyn Kandakai, who is a member of the Liberia branch of ALWN, said that women are often seen as underdogs in society and “if you have underdogs, it means that you have [to be] top dogs. The Africa we want; the Liberia we want, we don’t want to continue to see women as underdogs.”
These remarks were made on Monday, July 20, 2020 at the third ALWN meeting with women leaders of political parties or members of the Rainbow Alliance and non-affiliated political parties in Monrovia.
The Rainbow Alliance parties include the Liberia Restoration Party (LRD), Change Democratic Action (CDA), Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE), Democratic Justice Party (DJP), and Victory for Change Party (VCP).
Others include Grassroot Democratic Party of Liberia (GDPL), Redemption Democratic Congress (RDC), Peoples Unification Party (PUP), Vision for Liberia Transformation Party (VOLT), New Liberia Party (NLP) and the True Whig Party (TWP).
The subject of the meeting was: “Enhancing Women’s Participation in Governance: With Focus on Electoral Law Reform and Women’s Inclusion in Political Party/Coalition Structures.”
Dr. Kandakai used the opportunity to persuade participants to become more involved with the organization as it consults the Legislature to pass legislation that support them (women).
The African Women Leaders Network has been set up by the African Union ( AU), United Nations Women (UN Women) and some African countries to help give women more room in society.
Dr. Kandaka, Liberia ‘s former Minister of Education, said: “We need more momentum, more force in terms of women’s participation in leadership; not only in governance but in everything. There are women in business; there are women in security and so forth.”
He added that the role of the organization is to help drive the process by mentoring and introducing [women] to work at “better station.”
Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Alice Howard, stated that women’s political participation does not exist in a vacuum, “rather, it affects many environmental factors, including culture and social issues; traditional and political structures and the list goes on. Women just do not want to be in politics; it is not only to be at the highest table of politics but in every sphere of life,” she said.
However, she emphasized that for women’s involvement to be seen more in politics, women in Liberia should be able to follow in the footsteps of other countries, referring to Rwanda as a case study.
“While attending a program in Rwanda, the women of Rwanda were bold to tell us that it wasn’t an easy thing to achieve adequate political participation, so they had to make electoral reforms that we [Liberian women] too are preaching today,” she said.
The Director of the Gender Unit at the National Elections Commissions, Leisel Tarley, stressed that women’s political participation should cut across the community and district levels instead of only elected positions.
“This way, you become more known because in politics it is about how well-known you are,” she stressed.
