Despite years of hard work and proving they are “just as good as the boys”, African women (heck, Western women, too) are still finding it difficult to shatter the glass ceiling in various respects. Founder of the Flying Doctors, Ola Brown (Orekunrin) explores the different ways women are still stuck in yesterday’s patriarchy.

These are the 5 things we learned.

1 Playing the nude leaks game

When Diane Shima Rwigara; a 35 year old business woman, declared that she will be running for President of Rwanda, almost immediately her nude pictures were leaked on social media. Similarly nude leaks/sex scandals have occurred in Nigeria and Kenya when women have decided to run for political office. This is a problem. These images are used as a weapon to shame ambitious women back into their place. I sincerely hope that these type of leaks or the fear of them never stop women from claiming their right as citizens and as leaders with as much right to run for and hold political office as men.

2. Women in politics, a long hard won fight

Throughout history, attempts by women to exercise their franchise have been met with resistance. Over 1000 women in the United Kingdom alone were jailed whilst protesting for the right to vote. The same techniques of social isolation, humiliation, torture and dehumanization were used to try to punish women for even thinking that they should have a say in who leads their country.

According to the UN; from the local to the global level, women’s leadership and political participation are restricted.

Globally, women are underrepresented as voters. They are also underrepresented in all leading positions, whether in elected office, the civil service, the private sector or academia

Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access to health care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.

3. Successful women often have to pay a likability penalty for their career success

It is often the case that the more competent a woman is, the less likable she is judged to be

The opposite also holds true: the more likable a woman is, the less competent.

Women are expected to be and are valued for being nurturing, submissive, maternal and warm. However, men are respected for being confident, in control and outspoken. The paradox for women is that many of the essential attributes of a successful leader, such as assertiveness and directness, are often deemed to be unfeminine . This makes female leaders seem divisive and less likable. They are often unpopular with their colleagues and their communication style is criticized, which can result in their missing out on important promotions or assignments.

Even in America, women have always faced a double standard running for the highest and toughest glass ceiling to break ;executive office. Only 6 of America’s 50 governors and less than 17 percent of mayors are women. Women seeking executive office have to prove that they are capable enough, whilst remaining likable; an extremely tough difficult and frustrating balance to strike.

Research from the Barbara Lee Family Foundation finds is that likability matters more for women candidates than for men.

Unsurprisingly, Nigeria has never has a female president, vice-president, senate president or governor.

4. The business world is extensively skewed against women

In business, less than 5 percent of Fortune 1000 CEOs are women. Babson College’s Diana Report, found that the number of women partners in VC firms decreased from 10% in 1999 to 6% in 2014. The report also found that 97% of VC-funded businesses had male chief executives, and that businesses with all-male teams were more than four times as likely to receive VC funding compared to teams with at least one woman.

It’s also a well-documented fact that female founders receive less venture capital funding than their male counterparts. Venture capitalists invested $58.2 billion in companies with all-male founders in 2016. Meanwhile, women received just $1.46 billion in VC money last year, according to data from M&A, private equity, and venture capital database PitchBook.

In both business and politics there is evidence of systemic bias against women. We know that more diverse businesses make better decisions and are more sustainable long-term. We also know that female political leaders perform at least as well as their male counterparts. So why is female ambition continually discouraged by discrimination, humiliation and social exclusion?

5. Diane Shima Rigwa (and other women) do not deserve condescension

Diane Shima Rwigara, like thousands of women before her, has braved the myriad of roadblocks faced by women to run for president of her country. She deserves our support and respect. We should focus on her competence, her polices, her experience and her plans for Rwanda, not her nude photos. There is no relationship between a few private leaked photo’s and this young woman’s ability to lead her country to a more prosperous future.

“[Read also]: “Why Nigerian women do not use contraceptives | 5 takeaways from Ola Brown’s article”

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Dr Ola Brown (Orekunrin) is a doctor, trainee pilot and an entrepreneur who started the first indigenous air ambulance in West Africa. For more information please visit. www.flyingdoctorsnigeria.com

This article was culled from LinkedIn