PANELLISTS at a symposium organised as part of the second West African Women in Mathematics Conference have asked womenfolk to change their inferiority mentality as the issue of gender inequality took centre-stage at the conference.
According to the communique recently issued at the end of the conference which held at the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, from June 25 to 27, 2018, with the theme: “Addressing Gender Inequality Menace: Roles of employment and government policies,” women must realise that they have equal abilities with their male counterparts.
Conference participants were drawn from the academia in West Africa, public and private secondary school students and teachers.
A one-week pre-conference school on Financial Mathematics took place between June 17 and 23 at the same venue.
Panelists at the symposium that rounded up the conference included: Professor Josephine Guidy Wandja, the Vice President, West African Women in Mathematics, Dr Ronalda Benjamin, a plenary speaker from South Africa; Mrs Stella Omu, the Director (Principal), Federal Government Girls’ College, Bwari, Abuja; and Professor Olabisi Ugbebor; Professor F.O. Akinpelu, and Dr Deborah Makinde, the President, Vice President and Secretary, of the Nigerian Women in Mathematics, respectively.
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They identified the following problems resulting from gender inequality.
These included: school facilities that are not gender-friendly, especially towards the girl-child; Lack of appreciation of the uniqueness in the roles of women; underage marriage menace; trade for Western civilisation of the African culture of extended family system; poverty associated to early marriage resulting in shortened lifespan of the girl child; girl kidnapping, trafficking and sexual abuse; unequal opportunity in job employment for female gender compared with their male counterpart, among others.
They suggested that the girl-child should have a proper, correct and adequate education like their male counterpart; that females should be given equal job opportunities like males, and that formal complaint bodies to listen to and address female sexual harassment cases should be set up.
Other solutions put forward include: making the school environment gender friendly by providing basic things that can make the environment comfortable, and that a gender advocacy policy should be enacted to support gender equality.
“Women should change their inferiority mentality concerning their gender so as to support and develop the world,” the mathematicians said.
and then