Women and Money – A glimpse into what could be

The latest edition of Maastricht Debates revolved around an often underrated topic of development policy: women.

More specifically “What… if women had more economic options?”

Maastricht Debates

The debate brought together two speakers well familiar with the topic. Born in one of the poorest countries in the world, Mrs. Luisa Diogo was able to climb the ladder and become Mozambique’s first female prime minister. As such, she represents the slow progress as well as the continuing challenges of gender equality in the developing world.

The second speaker was Mrs. Sylvia Borren. Active in the NGO-sector, co-chair of the World Connectors think tank and of the Global call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and former executive director of Dutch aid organisation Oxfam Novib, she was able to shed light on the work of NGOs on the topic of gender injustice.

Mrs Luisa Diogo, former Prime Minister of Mozambique, speaks at Maastricht Debates

It was clear from the start of the event that the evening would not be comparable to earlier editions of Maastricht Debates. Indeed, rather than a debate, the communication between the two women was characterised by agreement, an exchange of experiences and knowledge, and a common attempt to raise awareness about the ongoing reality of gender inequality, also in the developed world.

The speakers shared their experiences with the audience. In order to illustrate the potential for great leadership by women, Diogo told the story of her grandfather who, in his function of village chief, used to act as a self-proclaimed counselor. He would listen to the villagers carefully and part from each one of them with the words: “I will sleep on your problem”. What no one knew, Diogo said, was that it was his wife, whom he consulted every night, who provided him with the actual solutions. Diogo used this personal anecdote to show that “the real leaders are in the shadow”.

Borren gave equally striking examples of gender inequality in the developed world and spoke of her own experience in the professional world. “I once introduced an idea for a company, but it was not given any attention. When that same idea was proposed by a male colleague, the company expressed enthusiasm and interest to execute the plans right away”. In Borren’s opinion, “the work of feminists in the developed world is not yet done”.

Mrs Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Worls Connectors and former director of Oxfam Novib

The two women also exchanged their views on more controversial questions. Borren envisioned an ideal word in which power amongst men and women would be equally shared. Diogo, in direct response, asserted “power-sharing is a fiction”, and that in today’s reality, women ought not to wait for this world to gradually emerge. Instead, she encouraged women to step up and “grab the power” they were competent enough to exercise.

Maastricht Debates

Another aspect of the debate which stirred some discussion among the audience was the idea of imposing a quota-system for the hiring of women in business. According to some members of the audience, quotas can be compared to “painkillers”, and do not address the structural causes of gender injustice. Borren and Diogo did not agree. Especially Diogo argued that by having a quota-system, “only the best are selected for a job”. In her view, this system would demonstrate that women can even perform better than their male colleagues, and therefore contribute to a change in mindset of men.

Ultimately, the two speakers shared their thoughts on how to concretely tackle the problem of gender inequality. Diogo underlined the importance of investment in education for boys and girls. “The boys,” she argued, “should learn at school how men and women are equal and how both should work together in partnership. Girls, conversely, must become aware of their potential, and should be encouraged to take courses especially in business and finance”.

Maastricht Debates

Borren, from a different perspective, pled for learning the lessons of civic courage in the developing world. She said that work done by feminists in previous decades is far from complete, and “the developed world should now take the successful stories of the developing world as an example for progress”.

It was surprising to notice the small number of males in the audience. Whether this was because of the warm weather or “important’ football matches” as one of them suggested, it did highlight gender inequality as a tangible and urgent issue to be addressed by today’s development policy.

By Romana Michelon

Romana, 21, is a Dutch-Italian student in her second year of the European Studies Bachelor at Maastricht University. Since October 2009, she is a member of the Concordantia student group involved in the organization of Maastricht Debates.

Maastricht Debates team with guest speakers Mrs Luisa Diogo and Mrs Sylvia Borren

Photos by Sonja Schiffers

Related article: Unspoiled, a blog post by Sueli Brodin