In honor of women’s history month
57, 58, 59, 60... Counting the steps till I finally get to my room. My palms are throbbing and my feet are hurting from balancing 2 huge buckets filled to the brim with water. This is the third time I've had to do this this week. Well the hall tutors said they'll have this fixed by the end of the weekend and I'd like to take their word for it.
Then I hear their voices, their loud whispers, "Chale won't you go and help the girl." I have always hated it when boys do this, it's wierd accepting help from someone when you know they were forced into it.
"Oh and what about you, can't you also help her?" The other one whispers back.
"Me no oo. What men can do women can do better. Isn't that what they've been saying. So it means they can carry the water better."
88, 89, 90... I try to focus on counting my steps so I don't stop to give these boys a piece of my mind.
" Ashock! They're always doing campaign for equality and what what. If you want to come to University and learn you should also be ready to carry your own water abi?"
I didn't hear the first boy's reply because thankfully I had gotten to my destination. 110 steps in all, but I might be wrong, I think I missed a few steps. 110 steps waiting for that one gentleman to offer help. But I guess male chivalry died years ago. But was the fight for equality ever a fight against dependency on the good graces of men?
"This thing, we’re not in the '90’s anymore oo. No one should come and tell me I have to get up for someone." One boy shouts loud enough for everyone in the bus to hear.
There are two main reasons why I hate standing in the bus that drives us 10 miles from Legon to Korlebu and back each day.
One: A good percentage of all the roads in Ghana are terrible, so half the time I’m scared that I’ll fall flat on my face. And knowing the kind of class mates I have been blessed with, I’ll never live to hear the end of it.
Two: the boys who spend half of the journey contemplating giving up their seats for the unfortunate girls standing and spend the other half convincing themselves that they made the right decision by not standing. It’s unbearable on days like this when you can hear them trying to convict themselves...
" True! We’re in a new era, you know. The era of 'independent women’." He scoffs while he says that and I’m wondering if it’s possible to knock someone and get away with it.
"And we’re just following the rules, 'Embracing equity' as they say we should. So yes you’re right no one in this world has the right to tell me to get up for a girl when I don’t want to." He’s just had his hair cut, I think, because only a few strands stick out. But this is good because that knock will very easily reach his 'medulla oblongata' and change his mindset forever. The other boys around him are nodding their heads vigorously and giving him pats on the back for speaking aloud the things they could have never said.
Well I don’t really blame them because what’s the point of struggling to enter the bus and giving up your seats for the same people you happened to push on your way in.
But on a more serious note, this has been the second time I have heard someone make fun of the concept of 'embracing equality’. In my opinion embracing equality is a must especially considering all the struggles to get equality in the first place.
Always remember that there’s this one young girl fighting for a chance just to learn to read and write. And there’s another girl hoping to be a lot more than a woman destined to bear children and set up house. Perhaps there’s this other little girl who has already given up on her dreams because she doesn’t see a way out. And there’s definitely this one woman CEO who is fighting to have her voice heard over the din of her exclusive male colleagues.
So let’s all embrace equality for that one woman who wants to stand a little taller.
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