Libyan women, a force of nature

As we huddled in front of the television set waiting excitedly for Dr Alkeib’s cabinet announcement, a historic event really for Libyans a dress rehearsal of sorts for the democratic experience we expect to have soon. Our new PM did not disappoint because his government was inclusive in every sense of the word, later on, in a press conference, when asked about the role of women in his government he said that never before have women been so well represented in a Libyan government but he said he hopes that even more women will be included in new Libya’s political scene.

The female population in Libya far surpasses that of their male counterparts due to many reasons most of them are connected to Gaddafi.

Gaddafi was a the modern day pharaoh who has waged war on the male population just because he felt threatened by their presence, he knew that they posed a challenge to his grip on power and so he sought to keep their count as low as he can manage and so an imbalanced Libyan society was created.

Contradictory to Pro Gaddafi sympathizers beliefs that, the Gaddafi regime gave Libya women rights and liberties they never had before, in fact women in the Gaddafi era government were poorly represented, and less than 2% of the government positions were occupied by women. Women’s education was revolutionized pre-Gaddafi, by the time Gaddafi arrived Libyan women were already graduating from universities and working in the different government institutes and had formed many civil society organizations which promoted women’s rights and campaigned to improve their work environment and pay conditions.

So much emphasis has lately been put on the importance of the participation of women in the politics of new Libya. Some have criticized that, two women ministers in a twenty four ministry cabinet are not enough representation for a society where women make up more than sixty percent of the population. I can argue back that and though Libya has a more than adequate supply of well educated ladies to fill political positions but Libya is a very conservative society, and though women are encouraged to seek an education and an employment , seeking attention politically or in the media is still very much frowned upon partly because of the Gaddafi stigma of the past four decades as it is well known in Libyan society that he has a reputation as a womanizer and to be a female in politics or the media instantly earned you a bad reputation because it meant you were either a murderess or a Gaddafi associate.

 Women must be better represented in the halls of power in free Libya and their interests need to be protected and the issues that have a direct impact on their lives must be addressed by women who can identify with them.

So if we want better representation of women in Libyan governments we must educate Libyan society and correct its misconceptions that a career in politics is not associated with shame as before but with pride and accomplishments.

We also must educate women to be able to participate in the political scene; we must cultivate empowerment and leadership qualities in girls from an early age.

Libya is in desperate need for this whole army of educated women who can help build their country in this time of destruction but this work force is paralyzed because there is no support from the government to unlock this great potential and lure these women into the work place.

Women are traditionally the home makers not just in Libya but all over the world so their daily absence from the lives of their children will destroy their families unless they have government support.

Only as an adult, have I come to appreciate the amount of sheer hard work a Libyan woman is required to put into family life and if you have a career too then that instantly doubles your work load. There are the endless social commitments because in Libya you are expected to reach out to all your extended family. There is the housekeeping and then there is the cooking. Libyan families rarely dine out and of course there are no microwaves dinners in the frozen food section in fact not even frozen vegetables, No conveniently packaged food stuffs that can be defrosted or reheated. No short cuts just fantastic healthy flavorsome food made from fresh ingredients. Except for bread, every single food item a Libyan family eats is made from scratch by a woman, be it a mother, a wife, a daughter or a sister.

 If women with families are provided with adequate support such as nurseries and day care for their older children by their employers, in fact employers can even go out of their way and give women employees with young families shorter work time or even a work from home option via internet when the children are on school holidays, many simple inexpensive  gestures can be made to Libyan women to make them feel welcome in the work place they would be able to serve their country,  pursue their careers and support their families and not sacrifice one for the other.