Women all over the world are generally believed to be weaker than men because their physical and emotional strengths are naturally not equal to that of men.
In the past, the idea of women being weaker than men, deprived them of some rights and privileges that men enjoy. For instance, before now women were not allowed to vote in some countries. Some cultural practices in some areas also ruined their chances of acquiring education and civilisation.
It is the quest to reverse this unfavourable condition of women in the society that gave birth to the women liberation movement. So women liberation is a call for us to do away with all cultures and practices that place undue restrictions on women thereby hampering their efforts to contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of the society. Women liberation demands that women should be given equal attention and opportunity with their male counterparts. It also emphasises that women are active individuals who can partner with men to achieve great results.
Something is said to be abused if it is put to a wrong harmful use. It is regrettable that many women today have abused the rights that women liberation has given to the female folks. Such women hide under the cloak of women liberation to exhibit behavioural attitudes that are alien and unwholesome, instead of using their position as liberated women to build their homes. Some women have on the contrary, through their evil activities, pulled down their homes thereby putting a question mark on the necessity of women liberation.
Imagine a situation whereby a woman who calls herself a mother tells her children that she is the one who fends for them and that their father contributes little or nothing to their upkeep. Such negative ideas when registered into children will only create in them a permanent hatred for their father who they may erroneously consider irresponsible and uncaring. When this happens, the family will eventually be torn apart. There are also cases of married women who no sooner they came into their husband’s home than they started creating enmity between their husband and the entire family members. They go ahead to call their mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and other members of the extended family such names that portray a bad image of the family to outsiders. Some women go as far as branding their mothers-in-law “witches and the barren ones accuse them of being responsible for their barrenness. Infact, the evil and havoc that such women cause in their husbands homes are too numerous to mention. All these in the name of women liberation. There are also countless cases of women who opt for divorce at the slightest provocation by their husbands and other family members. What of a case where a woman lives apart from her husband who pays her occasional visit in the name of civilisation and liberation?
At the community level, most women have equally abused the idea of women liberation. So many of them see the “August Meeting” as an avenue to indulge in indecent dressing, lavish money on clothes and display flamboyance. It Is also evident that some women use the “August Meeting” as an opportunity to run away from family responsibilities and force their husbands and other members of the family to realize their importance in their homes. Others use it as an opportunity to pay visit to their secret lovers. After spending so much money on these trivial things, these women have little or nothing left for community developmental projects which is, indeed, the prior essence of the “August Meeting”.
Our business and political arena have also been infested with the activities of women who perpetuate evil under the guise of women liberation. Such women especially in the political scene, take undue advantage of the idea that women are naturally loving and caring and will therefore perform better than men if elected into political offices. Those women have in most cases turn into wolves in sheep clothing as they man such offices, betraying the trust that the unsuspecting masses had reposed on them. It is no longer news that some of our women in political offices have become wayward in a bid to operate at par with their male counterparts. Some of them involve in orgies and late night cocktail parties where they drink excessively and abuse themselves with men who are not their husbands. Some of those who are in business insist on operating separate account with their husbands sometimes to enable them carry out projects without the approval of their husbands.
There are also cases of married women who refuse to help their husband’s with the proceeds from the business ventures even when it has become quite evident that their husbands businesses are on the verge of collapse. Many of such women belong to women associations where they are wrongly taught that women liberation as a movement is anti-men and so they use every opportunity at their disposal to lash it out when their own husbands are involved.
Women liberation, if put to its proper use can bring a lot of developmental gains to the family and society at large for instance, at the level of the home, a women’s first and most important ministry should be the stability of her home. Womanhood is a call to build a home. A woman should therefore be a wife to her husband and mother to her children. As a wife she must submit to her husband irrespective of her status in education, business or politics, she must recognise that the man is the head of the family, she must be loving and caring to her mother-in-law and other members of the extended family. It will be in her best interest to portray the family well before outsiders especially her sisters-in-law who are yet to marry. Eventually marriage will afford her the opportunity to enjoy her husband alone without unnecessary interference from others.
It is very good that a woman works but that should not be to the extent that her children and family suffers. If a woman happens to have a means of livelihood separate from her husband, thereby easing his financial loads and worries.
In a situation where the woman happens to be the bread winner of the home, she should not carry out responsibilities with disregard to her husband, who may be financially handicapped. Women liberation brings about empowerment and a woman is empowered to rescue her home and the society. We know that by so doing the society and the family will ever remain grateful.
There are countless cases of women coming together in their various communities to carry out big developmental projects that have helped to make life easy and more comfortable for rural dwellers.
Ibekwe is an intern with The Tide.

Peace Ibekwe