By Anusha Rawjee
This letter is in response to the article: Absence of women in BRICS is too glaring.
Dear Editor,
My limited life experience in the South African context is that a patriarchal attitude and our (female) acquiescence of patriarchy remains a challenge.
How do we stop the acquiescence?
To quote a colleague of mine – “We need to break the perception of ‘pull them down’” – which is how most junior women see senior women in the workplace.
As senior women it is for us to show our juniors we will build them up and not pull them down by doing exactly this.
This will result in the shift from junior women looking to only senior males for assistance and mentoring.
This acquiescence will then die a natural death.
As for BRICS and the leadership structures, I can only opine that the absence of women in leadership structures makes the structure poorer.
Does it reflect the view of men in those countries and the male leaders in those countries?
I know that PM Modi revered his mother as does the Chinese President revere his mother who he says has taught him many life lessons which he lives by.
I can only hope the reverence for their mothers can be extended to all women and that women are given the opportunity to serve their countries.
Sadly, besides the absence of women in BRICS, I point to the daily scourge of gender based violence and I opine that Gender equality remains a goal which we have to consciously work towards as a society.
BUSINESS REPORT