by Lanre Olagunju

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.

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 N200,000 or both for persons convicted of performing Female Genital Mutilation-(FGM) 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 $600billion, 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!

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Lanre Olagunju tweets from @lanre_olagunju

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.