•Globally, women still have only three quarters of the legal rights accorded to men, an aggregate score of 76.5 denoting complete legal parity.
•Former Sierra Leonean presidential aspirant says Kenya has a long way to break the gender inequality barrier.
What is your honest reaction when you see a female truck driver? How do you perceive that female mechanic you met the other day?
These questions drove part of the conversation when Stanbic Bank hosted women in the corporate sector at a forum dubbed 'break the bias' as the world marked International Women's Day yesterday.
The discussion focused on how we are all guilty of some gender bias in various aspects of our lives.
Just as women are perceived to be vulnerable and only qualify for softer jobs, men as seen as strong enough for tougher roles.
In Kenya, women are still underrepresented in corporate senior leadership positions and on boards.
Director General United Nations office at Nairobi Zainab Hawa Bangura who was one of the key speakers at the forum narrated how she overcame adverse gender discrimination during her political career and how she grew from it.
She said it is unfortunate that women still have to put in twice the effort compared to their male counterparts to get recognition at work places.
"As women, we need to know what we want in life because if we don’t, other people will give us what they think we want. We must walk into a room with confidence and with no apology,” she said.
Bangura, a former Sierra Leonean presidential aspirant is a relentless human rights champion and was Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict from 2012 to 2017.
She says Kenya has a long way to break the gender inequality barrier due to lack of implementation of gender equity laws and policies.
"You cannot fight gender based violence if the police force is no where close to being 50-50 gender-wise. How will women report rape if more than half the police is male? They feel judged and misunderstood,"Bangura said.
A World Bank report released last week indicates that billions of working age women globally still face unequal job opportunities compared to their male counterparts.
The Women, Business and the Law 2022 report released on March 1, says at least 2.4 billion are economically marginalised with 178 countries maintaining legal barriers that prevent women's full economic participation.
In 86 countries, women face some form of job restrictions while 95 countries do not guarantee equal pay for equal work.
Globally, women still have only three quarters of the legal rights accorded to men, an aggregate score of 76.5 denoting complete legal parity.
According to a report released by the World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2021, it will now take over a century, 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide, which means that a whole generation of women will have to wait before gender parity is attained.
The forum noted that even though historically gender equality policies have been contextualised mainly as a “women’s issue” both women and men have strong inequality impact on their daily lives.
"It is important to engage more men in standing for gender equality for this is the way to bring about change. To do that it is also necessary to make men understand how gender equality is relevant for them," Stanbic Bank Kenya Chief Executive Charles Mudiwa said.