Okay so @lanre_olagunju says I should post an article he wrote for Mothers Day last year and so here it is.
Why
Woman Matter
By Lanre Olagunju
The
fact that the first woman is the only creature created from an already existing
and living being tells a lot about a woman’s uniqueness and strength. But in a
couple of ways, the world is yet to harness the power and strength of a woman. The
saddest part is that instead of appreciating and nurturing their uniqueness,
women have been subjected to some forms of hardship as a result of their gender.
You
look around and you realize that violence on women and other degrading acts has
been on a steady rise lately. I’m really glad and impressed that the Nigerian
House of Representative has approved the recommendation of life imprisonment
for rapist, and a four year jail term or a fine of not more than N 200,000 or
both for persons convicted of performing Female Genital Mutilation-(F.G.M) on a
woman. I think this should bring some hope of restoring human dignity to our
women.
I’ll
like to share two stories to buttress the fact that women matter in all aspects
of life; that women have a lot more to contribute to our society than just
being regarded as mere baby making machines. They practically bring joy and
hope to our world. Women make our world more exciting and pleasant. We’ve got
to listen and take them a lot more seriously if we’d attain economic or
individual progress and prosperity.
For
instance, there are several speculations as regard what would have been the
state of Lehman Brothers if it were to be Lehman Sisters or perhaps, Lehman
Brothers and Sister. Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850 by Henry, Emanuel and
Mayer. Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest investment bank in the US and with
holdings of over $600 billion, at some point, it was considered as a company too
big to fail. Unfortunately, it became the largest bankruptcy filing in history when
it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. It was actually forced to declare
bankruptcy when it experienced drastic drop in share prices after so many
clients departed, and also as a result of devaluation of its assets.
The
truth remains that the closure of Lehman Brothers played a major role in the
global financial meltdown that struck the world in 2008, basically because many
big banks all over the world that dealt with them lost billions, leading to the
crash of several millions of micro investors.
When
you consider that Lehman Brothers crashed due to the high level of risk that
were taken by the chief strategist at some points, amongst other bad business
approaches and decisions; you just might want to assert the
sentiment that our world, probably would have been saved from the present
global financial crisis, if such a great investment bank had some feminine administrative
influence. See I’m not critically saying that women don’t take risk at all, but
the truth is that they are a lot more cautious than men who can be excessively
driven by testosterone.
Several
studies have supported the notion that women are more risk averse than men.
Experts have also researched that women are more
trustworthy and altruistic, most essentially when negotiating for others. Going
by a though-provoking
hypothesis by a Canadian researcher at the University of British Columbia
business school, it was discovered that “high testosterone level in men of a
certain age are associated with more aggressive decisions that throw caution to
the winds.” It then becomes wise and imperative to include and respect
the views of women as well in economic matters.
The
second story is the sad story I was told about a family who lost three kids in
the December 10, 2005 Sosoliso air crash. I learnt that the mother of these
kids had a dream prior to the crash. In her dream, she saw coffins and that got
her troubled. After she prayed about the issue, she had a premonition that her
kids would be involved in a disaster. When her kids were returning home for
Christmas holiday, she became more afraid and she prayed that if her kids will
be involved when coming home for the Xmas holiday, may God not let them get
their flight tickets. Somehow, the kids later called and said they couldn’t get
their tickets for one reason or the other. So she agreed and made provision for
them to come by road. But her husband won’t share in her premonitions, so he
disagreed to the kids coming by road. He later made arrangement to ensure that
they travelled by air; unfortunately the family lost all the kids.
The
two instances might help to emphasize that men need to build a culture of listening
and appreciating women and that involves acknowledging their views and opinions
on crucial matters, be it in economic, political or social issues. And this
goes beyond celebrating them on women/mothers’ day alone.
The
issue is not about erasing the natural differences between men and women, the
point is to acknowledge those differences and then harness them as a tool for
our collective good.
Happy
mothers’ day!
#Good read
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