The Country Director of OXFAM Liberia, Shah Liton, has called for gender equality. She made this call on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, in Monrovia, Liberia. She said, ‘[G]ender inequality around the world has now turned out to be a “social coronavirus” that has been going [round], from generation to generation. Women not having an equal share in the day-to-day political affairs of any country is a political coronavirus. Women not having economical share [is also] an economic coronavirus that needs to urgently be tackled by a nation’.

She added that the number of people that have died from domestic violence around the world is more than the deaths that have been caused by the coronavirus. She called on world leaders to do everything in their power to ensure that women are empowered in their countries because the development of any country cannot be complete without the empowerment of women.

Also speaking at the event was the chairperson-elect of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL), Loretta A. Pope Kai, who said, ‘[T]he percentage of women representation in the Liberian legislature has fallen to 3% to date. There is a need for an electoral law on the portion that has to do with “Endeavor to ensure”. The phrase “Endeavor to ensure” needs to be amended or removed in order to include more enforcement for the 30% women participation or representation in the governance system of the country’. She encouraged women to consult their female counterparts more for the support that will put women on equal footing with men.

Source: Liberian Observer

Photo source: OXFAM International