LASG urges women to fight for equality

The Lagos State Government says women must fight for equality with men in political, socio-economic and cultural sectors, adding that nobody will do it for them.

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Lola Akande, stated this on Monday at a news conference on the International Women’s Day, which comes up on Tuesday (today).

She added that women’s full participation on the basis of equality was the key to the attainment of development and peace.

During the briefing at the state secretariat, Alausa, Akande said while the status of women had improved overtime, there was need for them to strive to arrive at real equality with men in line with the theme of the 2016 celebration, ‘Pledge for Parity’.

She said, “We are celebrating our socio-economic, socio-political and cultural achievements that we have attained so far which is in tune with the aims of IWD being a day for the celebration of excellence, especially for women achievers. It is also a day for reflection on the progress made, a day for advocacy and action, a day to celebrate acts of courage and a day to encourage women to keep on advocating until the 50:50 agenda is attained.

“This year’s theme is a call to accelerate gender parity because the World Economic Forum predicted in 2015 that the gender gap would not close entirely until 2133, which is about 117 years from now.”

She urged women to take concrete steps towards achieving gender parity before the predicted time.

She said, “What should be in our minds is to fight for a gender-balanced leadership, nurture up our children equally, increase the number of women in the legislature, as well as strive to stop discrimination at the workplace.”