Monday, March 7, 2011

Kenyans ready for a woman president

Written By:Irene Muchuma/Judith Akolo, Posted: Mon, Mar 07, 2011

Infotrak Managing Director Angela Ambitho

The latest opinion poll indicates that 60 % of Kenyans would elect a female President if elections were held today.

Those interviewed by Infotrak say a female president may address issues affecting Kenyans with seriousness.

The poll indicates that majority of Kenyans believe that women have been discriminated against in public appointments.

75% of the respondents say more needs to be done to achieve gender equity in employment, education and training.

Speaking in Nairobi Monday when she released the poll results ahead of the international women's day to be marked on Tuesday, Infotrak Managing Director Angela Ambitho said their research revealed that violence against women had increased by 3% the same period last year.

The United Nations says women across the world continue to earn less than men for the same work, have unequal access to land and inheritance rights yet just 28 women are heads of state or government in the world today.

The theme of this year's world women's day is education, science and technology.

Meanwhile, the first Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet says there has been remarkable progress in expansion of women's legal rights and entitlements.

The head of the UN Women, a newly formed UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women says 100 years ago, only two countries allowed women to vote but today, "that right is virtually universal and women have now been elected to lead Governments in every continent," she says in a statement setting the stage for the commemoration of the UN Women's day on Tuesday.

She says women now hold leading positions in professions from which they were once banned.

"Today two-thirds of countries have specific laws that penalize domestic violence and the United Nations Security Council now recognizes sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war," said Bachelet.

She however notes that despite the progress over the last century, the hopes of equality expressed on that first International Women's Day are a long way from being realized," she says and adds that almost two out of three illiterate adults are women.

"Girls are still less likely to be in school than boys and in every 90 seconds of every day, a woman dies in pregnancy or due to childbirth-related complications despite us having the knowledge and resources to make birth safe," she notes.

The UN says women across the world continue to earn less than men for the same work, have unequal access to land and inheritance rights yet just 28 women are heads of state or government in the world today.

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