Celebrating Women’s Agency

Posted by Billene Seyoum on May 11, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

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The Association of Women in Business (AWiB) is celebrating women’s agency in the month of May. Specifically, on May 17th at the UNECA, in a forum designed to encourage management level professionals to confidently lead their professional and personal lives. But what exactly does agency mean? And specifically what do we mean by women’s agency within the context of our forum?

In explaining agency, numerous definitions of the term indicate that firstly choice is a key guiding principle in our capacity to act as agents, be it at an individual and/or group level. Meaning, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, the ability to make effective choices and transform these circumstances into the end results we aspire for, determines our capacity to exercise personal agency. Exercising one’s agency therefore also entails that at a basic level, we recognize the choices available to us and our individual capacities to act upon them effectively.

Similarly, world renowned social learning theorist and psychologist, Albert Bandura, explains that a key feature of personal agency is “the power to originate actions for given purposes”. In taking the role of originator of such actions, we understand the second key guiding principle to be intentionality – which pertains to an act committed on purpose or with particular intention. Bandura further supports this definition by explaining that “to be an agent is to intentionally make things happen by one’s actions.”

So when we condense these two key guiding principles of choice and intentionality and refer them to the female domain, we refer to women enabling themselves to play a great part in their self-development and renewal process. From an AWiB perspective, women exercising agency or “agentic” women are engaged and actively seek processes, mediums and platforms that position them as “agents of experiences rather than simply undergoers of experiences”, to borrow Bandura’s phrase.

As “agentic” women, the messages we tell ourselves and transmit to our daughters, sisters and female workers and colleagues through our actions carry the spirit of personal activity towards making conscious contributions to our professional success and personal fulfillment.

“Agentic” women:

  • exercise their ability to make effective choices
  • are invested in self-transformation
  • invest time, and energy in their personal growth and that of others
  • continually self-evaluate and monitor against personal standards
  • understand their worth and never sell themselves short of what they deserve. e.g negotiating for better pay
  • transform NO’s to YES’s
  • pave paths for others rather than block them because they recognize the power of the collective; and
  • are self-directed rather than norm and consensus bound

In celebrating women’s agency on May 17th, AWiB is therefore bringing to focus women’s ability to influence their own lives by engaging in self transformative activities. We believe that women actively engaged in equipping themselves with knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to excel in their specific environments, influence many aspects of their own well-being tremendously because they are operating from a place of possibilities. As well, they also positively influence their immediate environments and society as a whole when acting on both an individual and collective level.

Indeed we ask all our forum participants, men and women, to Expand Your Mind – Change Your World – Celebrate Women’s Agency!

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Love & Light

Celebrating the Pillars of African Agriculture

Posted by Billene Seyoum on April 22, 2012
Posted in: Advocacy, Poetry. Tagged: , , . 2 comments

This spoken word poetry piece is one i wrote and recorded last year in celebrating the “pillars of  African agriculture”.

As you listen to the piece, here’s some food for thought taken from the NEPAD Agriculture and Food Security website:

  • According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation over two thirds of all women in Africa are employed in the agricultural sector and produce nearly 90 percent of food on the continent.
  • They are responsible for growing, selling, buying and preparing food for their families
  • Yet even as the guardians of food security, they are still marginalised in business relations and have minimal control over access to resources such as land, inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizer, credit and technology.
  • A combination of logistical, cultural, and economic factors, coupled with a lack of gender statistics in the agricultural sector, mean that agricultural programs are rarely designed with women’s needs in mind. As a result, African women farmers have no voice in the development of agricultural policies designed to improve their productivity.

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Love & Light

So when are you having a Baby? (by Samson Tesfaye)

Posted by Billene Seyoum on April 19, 2012
Posted in: Agency. Tagged: , . 4 comments

In this amusing post, Samson Tesfaye, sheds light on what it means to jointly exercise agency in partnership with his wife. Underlining the theme of this blog in 2012, he poignantly encourages us to re-imagine the norms and expectations that we impose on others, men and women, that stifle spaces for expressing agency – the assertion of freedom to make effective choices and act upon them in spite of societal norms. 

I really wonder if it is customary or a must to ask a person who recently got married “When are you having a baby?” “When is the little one coming?” Or looking at the belly of the woman to see any sign of pregnancy (at least as a man we have the chance to pass on this one).

It has been seven months since I got married. My wife and I had a lengthy discussion with respect to starting a family before getting married. We decided to wait at least for one year before having children. We are happy with the decision that we have made and enjoying our first year of marriage.

We believe that it is our right and decision when to have children and how many we want or plan to have. It will also depend on our plans and timing. But in the past couple of months, we have become tired and fed up of answering the question “So when are you having a baby?” Most of these questions come from distant family members, close friends and colleagues.

My wife has been specially the one who was being bombarded with the question repeatedly. In recent days it has become so much to handle. She has been unhappy about the continuous grilling question of “when are you having a baby?”

She was telling me how unfair it was for people to ask this kind of question. It is a very personal question that no one has the right to ask. Why do people ask this question? It is one of the reasons why I wanted to write on this subject. I saw how it has really made her feel sad and worried about the comments.

It is a very difficult question to answer, as mostly you wouldn’t be ready with an answer. The first thing that will come in mind will be a smile. If you say that you want to wait or say that we are thinking about it, then a list of advise on a having a baby will be offered. The list will include, “you are not getting younger”, “you will be a great mother”, “ you have a stable job, this is the time”, “it would be nice if we raise the kids together (these are usually the friends)”,” your husband is supportive”, the list continuous.

But the most basic question that people tend not to ask is “Do you want to have a baby?” “Or are you ready to have a baby?” One of my good friends who had been asked the question so many times said to me “I want people to leave me alone, and stop asking me this kind of question. It is my life and I will decide what to do with it.”

The other day I was at my mother’s having lunch (you know missing mom’s cooking). One of her friends was there and was asking me the famous question “when are you having a baby?” He was saying that “My son just had a baby. He married after you and he is already a father.” Having a baby in 5 month?  Well you can do the math when it started or you never know what happens with the technology nowadays.

My mother who was present in the room and hearing all this, said to me, “There are three things that one should never ask a married couple. The first one is “Never ask ‘When are you going to have a baby’?” The second one is ‘What does your husband or wife do for a living?’ The last one is ‘How much does your husband or wife get (in terms of monthly income)?” My mom stressed on this point, as she is a big advocate of not interfering on this is kind of very private matter. She said that one should respect the privacy and decision of couples and individuals.

I was asking myself why people ask this very sensitive question. Do people have the right to interfere in your life? One might argue that it is out of love and care that people ask this question. But still, starting a family is not something that one does for fun or because friends or family members have done it.

I read an article, which discuss what couples should consider before deciding to have children. “As a couple, you should consider your feelings about children, time management skills, your finances, and your goals for the future. Ask yourself whether you like kids, whether getting pregnant would disrupt your careers and how that would make you feel, and whether you could afford a child. (Kids can be pretty expensive, even in the early years.) Are you emotionally, physically, and financially prepared to bring a baby into the world?

The article continues “Another important question to ask is whether your marriage is strong enough for pregnancy and child rearing. Sometimes, couples think that a baby will solve all their problems. In reality, a baby adds stress to the relationship. A baby needs your constant care and attention, and he or she will get in the way of alone time for the couple. There will be fun and satisfying moments – when baby says his first word or falls asleep with your finger in his hand. But there will also be moments of panic – when he won’t stop crying no matter what you do or when he gets his first fever.”

I want to say that, one shouldn’t be expected to explain these reasons to anyone. It is an individual’s or couple’s decision. If one has a child, it is the couple’s responsibility to raise the child. I really want people to stop and think before asking the question “When are you having a baby?” Is it really your business whether your friend or colleague has a baby? If someone wants to discuss having children with you or wants your advice on the subject, they will ask. If they don’t ask, there is a reason.

I am not saying that it is not a blessing to have children. It is probably one of the best gifts a married couple or anyone could have. What I want to stress is that starting a family must be something that should be planned.

As the saying goes “when you’re single, people ask about boyfriend, when you have a fiancé, they ask when is the wedding. When you get married, they ask when you will get pregnant. When you already have one, they ask when the little brother or sister coming along. The reason for having a third child is he or she will act as a mediator when the sisters or brothers have a fight. When you divorce they ask why? If you try to move on, they ask why so quickly?”

People will never stop asking… so you should always stand for your right and  if you are not happy with the comments people make, tell them to mind their own business,

I close with my favorite motto: “Be Happy Life is So Short to be Sad” so enjoy life as you only live once in this world. Have a great day.

Samson is a communications and event management consultant. He is happily married. 

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Love & Light

Modern-day Slavery of Ethiopian Women

Posted by Billene Seyoum on March 18, 2012
Posted in: Advocacy. Tagged: , , , , . 9 comments

She mostly comes from a poor community. She is female which introduces a whole new dimension to her experiences in a foreign land. She’s mostly Christian, newly converted to Islam to meet the demands of her work. She’s black African. Add to that she hardly speaks a word of Arabic. She might not even speak the official language of Ethiopia. She has probably never been to Addis Ababa until she began her process for migration, which can serve as a testing ground for what to expect in the metropolis of the Arab states. This concoction and intersection of class, gender, religion and race ultimately puts her in the bottom rung of the social strata in the Middle East. She has no information and whatever bit she has does not paint the correct picture. Once she lands in the Middle East, she is at the mercy of her employers. She has no telephone access. She has neither friends nor family to call upon. She is confronted with jealous wives and sex-seeking husbands. The Ethiopian Embassy, where one may exist, is unreachable to her because she is locked up and has no means to get access to her consulate. She is the modern-day slave fighting for survival.

Remembering Alem Dechassa

There is a piercing and disturbing pain that comes with witnessing the anguish and pain of another human being gripped in the relentless embrace of suffering. There is an even sharper pain that resonates with the realization that the intersection of class, gender, religion and race plays a huge role in the source of that person’s agony. And when that person is country folk, the sorrow felt in response to their torment in foreign lands is indescribable. Not because of an inability to feel the same for anyone in a similar situation, but because of a local understanding of the circumstances that paved their tumultuous path.

That piercing, disturbing, sharp pain and sorrow is what I have felt upon watching the viral video of Alem Dechassa, an Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon, being dragged by her hair and physically abused by her male employer in front of her Embassy grounds. Two days after the release of this video, reports came out that Alem Dechassa had committed suicide at the psychiatric hospital she had been admitted to. She is shown fighting for survival with every inch of breath and energy left in her.

Alem’s story is one that in Ethiopia we have become all too familiar with. The rural girl or woman who is burdened with the responsibility to take care of her family or is bridled with a passion for self-development, which the reality of her small rural community cannot afford her in its humble offerings. And so the journey that requires her to shed her language, religion, culture, name, family and all that is familiar becomes much more alluring.

Is it better?

A few weeks back I find myself in a modest hair salon in the city of Bahir Dar by Lake Tana. Conversation in there is bubbling about the next wave of women making their way to the Middle East in search of better opportunities. A young woman who is friends with one of the employees in the hair salon has come in to get her hair done before her departure the next day. I ask her where she is going and she replies with caution of her flight from Addis Ababa the next evening to Saudi Arabia. I am afraid to ask her more lest my queries and my worries about the life of a domestic worker in the Middle East should come off as patronizing. Nevertheless, I proceed with one commonly asked and somewhat irrelevant question, “is it better?” It’s irrelevant because I know she has come this far with the choice in mind that indeed it was better. Yet I ask her anyways, to get her perspective on the journey ahead of her.

She is cautious in her responses but she is also fierce. There is determination in her voice projecting to her listener that this journey is one with a purpose and end time. She has processed her contract through a “legitimate” agency she shares with me. She adds that the Ethiopian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs have provided them with training on what to expect there, what their rights are, that they are not to give away their passports, and that they are within their right to change to different employers within the first three months of each contract. She assures me that the problem cases arise when processed through the illegitimate sending agencies only. She plans to return back with cash in hand in a few months time to start-up something in Bahir Dar.

If her dreams go as planned, it is better. Who am I to doubt that while sitting in my seat of privilege?  Even my cousin has made a better life for herself after some short years in Bahrain in domestic servitude. That is if we do not factor in her near death experience when her employer’s mother poisoned her and the other time when her employer’s brother attempted to rape her.

But how long do we continue to “not factor in” these instances accepting them as “minor” hiccups in these women’s progress to self-development?

Race to the bottom

There is a socio-economic concept that posits that when a certain country X enforces strict regulations say on taxation or labor standards, foreign direct investment will seek another country with less stringent regulations. In essence, flexible regulations enable the “race to the bottom”. I found this theory somewhat worthy of mention upon reading a news article from earlier this month in which it is stated that Saudi Arabia alone is seeking up to 45,000 Ethiopian domestic workers per month to meet its requirements. This increase in demand is attributed to Saudi Arabia’s placement of “a ban on recruiting workers from the Philippines and Indonesia after those countries imposed stricter employment conditions.” (Read more here: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/saudi-seeks-45k-new-ethiopian-maids-per-month-450089.html).

This is a classic example of the Saudi Arabian government denying its responsibilities to create hospitable working conditions for migrant workers, and rather preying on countries like Ethiopia who are still in the process of strengthening their support systems for domestic workers going abroad. If in essence the Saudi government is refusing to honor better pay and living conditions for the thousands of women who flock there, would it be an overstatement to suggest that they are institutionalizing a modern form of slavery?

Whose responsibility is it anyways?

Should all fingers only be pointing to the government for a resolution? Do we as citizens not have a part to play in information sharing and raising awareness? Can we who cry out in condemnation of the many Alem stories not put our minds together and come up with a bridging solution that can reduce some of the symptoms of this problem before our girls and women leave? Can we not collaborate with the few human rights organizations working in these Middle Eastern countries to also incorporate our migrant workers in their agenda?

This is the moment when I wish for an Alem2012 viral campaign video that would generate the same fervor for action and worldwide condemnation of the Middle East track record for treatment of migrant workers.

To the governments of Middle East countries who are host to our domestic workers, I insist, our women and girls are not bottom of the rung for us!

Watch “Nightmare in Dreamland” here, a documentary on the plight of Ethiopian and other domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates.

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Love & Light