Shattering Glass Ceilings

Since Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s emergence as the first female and first African Director General of the World Trade Organization, I have seen and read something – encomiums, praises, tributes and even ‘famzing’ made to her person on almost every social media platform. A Queen!

Going through her ‘pithy’ personal statement, I had to skip some awards and certifications at a point because pardon me “E choke!” It dawned on me there and then that the narrative has changed from “God When?” to “God How?”

NOI is a trailblazer and how can you not not want to be more? How?

The likes of Aunty Ngozi and Cousin Kamala Harris have shown us that education is not a scam and that we all need to support female education in our society.

Today, on our new episode of Gbemisola feeling energized and super duper happy. I bring you an essay on…

The need to support female education in our society.

Humans, regardless of their gender, skin color, and tribe, have the right to quality education. What could have birthed the idea that girls and women are less human? That they do not need formal education because they are doomed to sit at home and nurture the man and their children. This is the reality in so many societies. Female education would herald many opportunities and pave way for phenomenal growth and monumental developments. The time has come when female humans should rise up and let their voices be heard, and not just muffled behind closed doors.

The need to support female education has never been more pressing and appealing – especially given our current realities and peculiar circumstances in this present generation because, apparently, though trite, times have changed. Gone are the days when a female child would stay at home to cook and fetch water while her brothers went to school. The days when a thirteen-years old female child dared not refuse the aged man that paid her weight in cowries the comfort and pleasure of her temple taking her through the pains of labour and motherhood when she clearly would have benefitted from the latter. Gone were the days when a female child was only to be seen serving her father’s friends palm wine while they shamelessly stared lustfully at her like another piece of item to be owned, but never to be heard. Limitations should not be placed on females’ education. The female child deserves good things too, like quality education. According to UNICEF, Nigeria has the highest absolute number of child brides in the world – 3,538,000 – and the eleventh highest prevalence rate of child marriage globally and 73% of Nigerian women with no formal education were married before the age eighteen, compared to only 9% who had completed higher education. This emphasises the need to support, advocate and entrench female education in our society. All hands must be on deck to bring this to fruition and I dare say, bring down the increasing number of uneducated females to zero.

An educated and well-informed female births a prosperous Nation. When the female child is educated, the number of child marriages will reduce drastically, cases of sexual violence which sometimes are unfortunate consequences of lack of sex education would be reduced, maternal and child mortality would be reduced in our society. When the female child is educated, they will be well informed about their fundamental rights as humans, they would be enlightened about sex and sexually transmitted infections, its causes, preventions, and treatments. An educated female is an industrious and prized human with enormous potential for economic and social value contributing to her own growth and the development of her nation. An educated female will ensure her children are educated. When a female child is educated, she educates those around her including males. With an educated female in our society, education becomes the rule, not the exception.

An educated female is a productive female. She drives change. She brings about economic and social impacts. An educated female will join hands with others to birth the society we want. A society that does not discriminate or place barriers on how far she can go. An educated female is a leader with proclivity to shatter ceilings because, she is an eagle and the sky might not contain her.

The need to support female education in our society can not be overemphasized and these points are but a few of the power of education of females in our society.

Join me as I make a toast to a wine sweeter than “Shattering glass ceilings.”
Cheers!🍷