By Agatha Namirembe.
In Uganda most of the work in the house is done by women. This includes cultivation, preparation and cooking of food, cleaning the house, washing and ironing clothes and a lot more.
There are three main factors dictating this and these are;
Culture, Religion and failure by men to share gender responsibilities. As a result of this the Uganda woman is subjected to a lot of toil in fulfilling all the work in their field, kitchen and the house. In addition to this, the same woman is faced with the natural duty of bearing and rearing children.
The situation becomes worse if this woman is employed somewhere many females all over the world have made a lot of effort to fight this imbalance but there is still a lot more to do if we are to realize gender equity and guarantee women’s rights.
In Venezuela for example, Government has included in its laws a pay for house wives as one the measures put in place to protect women rights. Each wife is paid 380,000 Venezuelan Bolivares per week (About 436,600 UG Shillings).
The government has also set up a women’s development Bank (WDB) as an additional measure for women empowerment. The WDB has made huge contribution in forms of loans to those women who want to start business.
In Uganda where the majority of women serve as small tractors to cultivated food, cooks, to prepare all the food required in the house, baby seaters to bear and give care to children without any help from their spouses, they deserve payment of salaries. It is true that they promote food security and add to the national GDP by growing cash crops such as coffee, cotton, maize, simsim just to mention by a few.
The following therefore are suggestions as possible solutions to the problem.
(a) Women feminists should continue sensitizing gender equity and women’s rights.
(b) The Uganda government should borrow a leaf from the Venezuela policy of paying house wives.
(c) Government should intensify its support on all women programmes that are aimed at empowering them e.g the National Affirmative Action, Prosperity for all, The Women Fund Programme among others.
(d) Trade Unions and all other women pressure groups should help to fight this inbalance through sensitizing on gender equity and gender responsibilities.
(e) Worker’s MPs should make a joint effort to study the Venezuela policy of paying house wives with a view of taking a private members bill to parliament so that the laws can help the Ugandan house wife.
(f) Men should give a helping hand to their spouses and the inherited primitive cultures where a man just looks on while spouse is toiling with house work, saying like “A man doesn’t cook”, A man is the head of the home” etc■
