Engaging the 52%

Let’s be honest, I am a feminist. I believe that men and women are equals and should have equal political, social, and economic rights. You will not be hearing me calling for “womyn’s” rights, but be sure that I wholly believe that any differences that are perceived between the sexes should not impeded the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness of any gender.

While our achievements stand on the strong shoulders of the feminist women that came before us, among recent generations of women the term feminist has developed somewhat of a stigma. Resulting from the perceived extremism of some feminists that have been attached to the word, being called a feminist has been at times thought synonymous with crazy man haters. Feminism seems so last generation; it belongs to our bra burning mothers and grandmothers, not us. But while great strides have been made in creating a world of equal rights for men and women, feminism is still something our generation needs. Spending the last two years living in Togo has taught me what it means to live in a patriarchal society, the courage it takes to stand up for the rights of a marginalized population, and has demonstrated just how much of an impact women’s rights has on a community.

In what will be a project that bookends my service, I had the opportunity to meet one of the preeminent women’s rights advocates here in Togo. I got chills listening to her speak the powerful truths that are so rarely heard here in Togo; women matter and as 52% of the population it is about time that women receive equal rights as men. Seeing the audience of women become so impassioned by her words reinforced in me the deep sense of how important human rights are and how much they are worth fighting for.

Civic engagement is relatively low in Togo, particularly among women. While universal suffrage exists, few take advantage of the right. Near the beginning of my service I helped the women’s rights NGO I work with write a grant to launch a project to work to increase civic participation among women in our prefecture. This past Monday, in partnership with African Women’s Development Fund based in Ghana, we opened our project with a training of female leaders from each canton in Vo. Leading up to the May elections we endeavor for female community leaders to learn about civil rights, the electoral process, and voting. These trained leaders have been tasked with spreading this information to the members of their community and to assist community members in registering to vote. The project will continue through the elections, encouraging people to vote, and with further educational sessions including those about avoiding violence during and after elections.

We represent only one prefecture out of thirty that exist in Togo. The project is only a small step in the effort to increase peaceful civic engagement in a country and region where often little confidence exists in the electoral process, but maybe getting women more involved will help move things in the right direction. After all, not including women, who represent more than half of the population, is like working with only half your brain. Only when we engage everyone will we be able to finally achieve the results we want to see in our communities.