Women are HUMANS and not SEXUAL objects....

Even in a democratized Kenya of 2013, with a Constitution that backs gender parity, public opinion on women’s role in society is surprisingly archaic.

I challenge you to hit google and type, “women shouldn’t”. The results may surprise you. I say, “May,” because I am alive to the fact that not everyone is on the same wavelength on this matter.

My friend recently attended a forum touching on gender roles and the discussion, she later told me, disgusted her. She told of how men in the room openly criticised women, suggesting that the sole reason men marry, is for sex. Now this is extreme, right? No! The man who dared to make this suggestion was apparently backed by both men and, shockingly, women who think even less of the female gender.

Ideas were floated on how our mothers, sisters, wives and aunts should not be allowed to earn more than their male kin because it creates a terrible imbalance in gender roles as God intended. Let us forget invoking religion in this debate for a second and think carefully about what these suggestions really mean.

Discrimination against women creates depression for the oppressor. Research actually shows this. Gender Differences in Implicit Self-Esteem Following a Romantic Partner’s Success or Failure is the paper I will site. The psychologists behind the study found that in heterosexual relationships, men tend to feel bad about themselves when good things happen to their female partners. But women, ever stoic and unmoved, were found to have their self-esteem unaffected by any financial changes in their partners.

-The Nairobian