Traditional beliefs that hinder women recognition

1. Division of labour
 In most societies today women and men play different roles.
 You will find that different people have defined and specific jobs
Women do the cooking and care for children, the sick and the
elderly.
 Men on the other hand are seen as the "toughees" who make
decisions, possess most of the wealth, do "heavy work" and are
"bread winners" and "protectors" of their families.
 All these different roles are not designed by God or nature. They are
actually determined by traditions and customs.
 There are many women today who are bread winners and
accumulators of wealth.
 This fact is, however, just ignored by those people who still think
women should remain powerless in our societies.

2. Tradition and women
 When you look at many traditional values and customs,
women have less power than men.
 There are different ways in which tradition affects
them.
 This includes such things as how they should dress,
talk, look after their families, work and how they are
supposed to "behave" towards men and other
members of the society at large.
 There are rules that tend to dictate how women should
conduct themselves in public and this of course does
not apply to men.

3. Tradition and women cont.
 She must stay at home and make sure all is well while men go to the
Kgotla to make decisions, some of which directly affected women.
 Chiefs and rulers have always been strictly men in Botswana until
recently when we had women ascending to Chieftaincy.
 Some of the traditional beliefs still reign or are still practised by some
groups even today such as the paying of bride price or lobola.
 Some of these practices are seen by many as practices that make women
minors in marriages.
 These are relationships where the society prevents women from actively
participating in the decision making process and the entire development
of their country.
 This needs to be worked on and revisited as women are just as able as
men.

4. Tradition and women cont.
 In the past there were false assumptions about women
that hindered them from participating fully in the
development of their societies.
 There were many untrue taboos and myths that acted
as obstacles to women's participation to development
and below are some of such taboos and theories;
 Some people believed that women were inferior to their
men as Eve, the first Biblical woman was created out of
Adam's rib.
 This gave some people, especially men, the belief that
men are the leaders of the house while women were
just minors like children.

5. Tradition and women cont.
 Others argued that women had smaller heads, as such
had smaller brain power.
 This, of course is unfounded as the size of one's head
has nothing to do with one's brain capacity.
 Other men argued that women were too busy as
mothers and as such could not succeed in public life as
men did.
 Some men did argue that women menstruate and bear
children, and if they go to schools to study they will use
all their energy in studying and would as such be
unable to have children.
 Again this is unfounded as one's academic ability or
intelligence, has nothing to do with her fertility.

6. Women in Labour
 Women in most developing countries carry out many different
tasks or jobs especially in rural areas.
 For example we all know that it is women who are doing cooking
for the family, collecting water and firewood.
 Women in developing countries are also involved in community
activities outside their homes such as child care, religious
activities and social duties.
 Women work extra unpaid jobs in the community such as helping
neighbours or relatives and child care.
 In Botswana it is the women who are mostly involved in non-
governmental organisations such as the Red Cross, Orphanages
and Home Based Care for the sick people.
 Women are also involved in farming, both arable and pastoral.

7. Women in Labour cont.
 Even working women who are educated do some other
household chores in the evening as they take care of the family
by cooking, washing, bathing the children, etc.
 The women, in other words work double in a day.
 In the case of Batswana of the Vapostori Religion, commonly
referred to as "Zezuru" it is the women who do most of the selling
than the men.
 Many women work as teachers, factory workers, shop assistants
and many more do other paid jobs to earn some money.
 Others work in informal sectors such as selling goods on the
streets or brewing beer or even sewing clothes for the family but
do not earn a lot compared to their male counterparts as they get
almost one-tenth of the world's wages.