SHIRLYNE, 22 ÅR

N/Ajjjj Gshhggeheje Ggehehhehieje Ggehehehhje Ggehejheheje Tyeyehjejeptyhehejegbd Rtegheehjeejebgss MEN’S PLACE IN THE LIVES OF EMPOWERED WOMEN There is no doubt that the efforts of feminism movement in the 20th century and the 21st century have borne massive fruits for the women across the world. Even though a lot needs to be done, it is okay to celebrate the many meaningless milestones for women. Now, more and more women get into college. More are also getting lucrative jobs in the corporate sector and academia. In some countries such as the United States of America, more women get to college than men and in some sectors of the economy, women are virtually in control. In Kenya, the latest figures from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey reveal that women aged 18-34 are doing better in virtually every aspect of life than their male counterparts of the same age. While this is remarkable progress to be cheered, there seems to be growing discontent that while women seem to be breaking every discernible glass ceiling, men seem to be lagging behind. Soon enough, without any creative and collective intervention, we may have a situation like the one in America, especially among African-Americans. Women high up in academia and career find it difficult to pair-bond, and this has spawned single-parent families. When you have more successful women in the society than a corresponding number of men, it is bound to create great rifts on the way men bond for relationships and even start a family. Not trying to point any fingers or accuse any gender of being responsible for the way things have turned out. Rather this is a call for us to collectively find a way of empowering both men and women so that we can be at par. It makes for a great, cohesive society. It is a very natural expectation to one day settle down and start a family. But people don’t settle down with just anyone. Women, out of practical reasons, will want to marry laterally or upwards, purely to secure the future of their offspring. Picture a situation where you have one million women with degrees and jobs, and you have 100000 men with a similar situation. We find many men dropping out and settling for boda boda jobs. While boda boda and any other business is a way fo making an income, in the larger scheme of things, a woman with college education and say, an office job, will not be overly excited for such a man. But what if this is the only man available for her? In America, studies show that black men who are college-educated and have good jobs tend to take much longer to marry and often go for women of other races. Given that they are in demand, they have little incentive to be faithful and lack the necessary discipline required for a long-term relationship of family. Similarly if we carry on with the current trend, we will have a situation where we have more women who are empowered than men. And such women will have difficulties getting partners to settle with. So as we go about empowering women, it is time we thought of long-term strategies of taking a dualistic approach empowering both men and women. When one gender goes up, the other one should go up as well. Thus, empowerment and advance of one gender needs a holistic approach. Beyond the political and economic empowerment of women, the society has to be taken care of. When men get left behind, they will have less incentives, we will have less family men and that means we end up raising broken children, because they won’t have present fathe