At the table; not just on the menu

This March the world will come out in various shows of support for women in what has gradually
come to be accepted as the Women’s Month. In New York, representatives of both government and
non-state actors will be convening at the 62 nd session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of
Women. There, in one of the biggest cities in the world, so far removed from the troubles of rural
living, the influential and high-geared will deliberate on the challenges and opportunities in achieving
gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.

In Africa, the month proceeds as any other, with the exception of the 8 th of March when the
continent joins the rest of the world in marking International Women’s Day. This year, Nigeria’s The
Women Writers Committee of PEN Nigeria held a series of activities while in Kenya the First Lady
held an exclusive launch for the long-term strategy for her ‘Beyond Zero’ campaign. The
undercurrent in all of these events across the continent and beyond is the absence of the woman
who is yet to ‘make it’ and whose progress is still encumbered by many obstacles. As International
Women’s Strike organiser, Tithi Bhattacharya puts it, ‘the focus on the few women who have broken
the glass ceiling hides the reality that the majority of the women are in the basement cleaning up the
glass’.

It is a common occurrence for rural populations to fall to the bottom of the priority-list during the
formulation of development policies and plans. However it is worse for women and girls, who being
more strictly bound by cultural norms and practices, are often left out altogether. Culture demands
that women, like children, are ‘seen and not heard’. While their city-sleeking counterparts have
managed to loosen some of these shackles, women in rural areas have a much harder time
demanding their equal share of resources. This is regardless of their contribution to the communal
pot in a continent where according to the World Bank, women make up 50% of the labour force. Yet
women in the informal (and in some fields within the formal sector) earn much less than men. They
also tend to take on much more unpaid care work but very few women are involved in policy-making
processes, especially those concerned with public finances.

It is time that conversations around gender balance for development became more open and
engagement around policies became more inclusive. The Bogota Declaration on tax justice for
women’s rights calls out national governments for accommodating demands by multinational
companies for tax incentives, natural resources and government subsidies, while ignoring women’s
demands for equitable taxation across the board. By giving Big Business and high-net worth
individuals a free-pass on tax, governments are hampering their own efforts in raising the necessary
funds to finance the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and particularly, the socio-
economic needs of women.

As we celebrate women who have made history in their various fields, a moment of thought needs to
be given to those who are still struggling to get their feet through the door.

This month, as different actors join in the press for progress, there is need to ensure that no-one is
left behind. Women, at all levels, need to be at the table to demand for their fair share.

The author is Tax Justice Network Africa’s Assistant Communications Officer.