“Woman empowerment…”

The Eras of the Queens that had started with the Queen of Sheba and the latter days of patriotism were times of glory and prosperity for Ethiopia, as the Elizabethan Era was a time of glory and grandeur for England.
Why do people talk these days about the necessity and urgency of woman empowerment in Ethiopia? Is it a political ploy to frustrate an opponent, or an outlet for exercising new democratic rights? Whatever the truth that bears correctly on this notion, the Ethiopian woman has lived in this country for the many years that have passed in the shadow of politics dominated by men's rivalry for eminence.
True those women in other countries, too, could not be said to have enjoyed their full rights of leadership just like the Ethiopian women beyond nominal expression of will, despite the long and historical struggle that rocked the prevalence of men's chauvinism to its bottom in the famous women's fanchisement movement of the 20th century.
In the modern educational system of Ethiopia that had started in the post-war era, i.e. after 1941, men and women used to go to school on equal status. However, the traditional and cultural undertones of the society on the one hand, and the backward feudal political system on the other, had not given for both genders equal opportunity of education, since most of the youths of the hinterland and those living on the peripheries were either under feudal servitude or partially neglected. Those who had the opportunity to partake in modern education were only some of the privileged boys and girls and some of those who lived in the urbanized sections of the country.
Nonetheless, those revolutionary movements that had started in the Ethiopian university system in the early fifties and those that had ensued afterwards, had ignited broader awareness about the need of equal rights of woman to man, and the advent of the new economic system has hastened the urge of woman's empowerment in this country. As a result, today, the Ethiopian woman has started to exercise high profile in politics, management, in the arts and sciences, and has assumed prominence in world sports and athletics.
Yet the leadership torch of woman has to burn until the specter that she should continue to live in the shadow of man comes to an end, and until every female assumes her rightful position and her full right of womanhood in Ethiopia, where her old traditions of model
role in political and administrative leadership and in the theatres of war should reverberate once again through the memories of those brilliant leaders and brave women of all times. In this respect, all the women of the world should be heard and respected for what they are and not for what men presume they should be.
Newsweek in its October 22, 2007 issue asked: "Do women lead differently? Should they?" Among eight prominent women that it interviewed from different backgrounds, I beg to quote the reply of Mme. Ann Lauvergeon, CEO, the French energy conglomerate Areva.
"…I had the impression that the generation before me had fought very hard for women's status. I have two younger brothers and we were all raised equally, so I thought society was set up the same way. However, when I moved into the business world later, I learned that things were not what I thought. My first boss said to me at my job interview, "A woman's place is in the home." But, he saw that I produced good results and even had good things to say about me. So at a meeting a few months later, I said, "Perhaps you've changed your opinion about woman's place," and he said, "No, you are not a woman." That was 25 years ago. Today, I don't think anyone would dare say such a thing."
This short quotation is a reminder for the Ethiopian woman, what she should be. But, her old tradition of leadership role and bravery should be a source of her empowerment, power, pride and confidence in her femininity and should prevail as evidence for others.