General
Source: Manaonline
Blantyre — President Dr Joyce Banda has appealed to female reporters to write stories that paint a positive picture of women leadership ahead of May 20 tripartite elections.
Briefing the press in the presence of People's Party supporters at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on Thursday, the President observed that women leadership is subject to all sorts of ridicule and lack of respect.
"Imagine a country which has the mindset that when a female leader attends a state funeral she has gone there to cook cabbage. Female journalists should be on the forefront not to spread such humiliation but rather write something positive," she said.
The Malawi leader also appealed to all women in the country to learn to support one another saying she has noticed that it is women who seem to be in the fore front to scandalize other women's issues and comment negatively on this.
She pointed out that during election season, women would say sentiments like: "What does she want to be? What will she achieve?" saying this has to change if we are to attain 50 percent women representation in decision making positions.
Malawi is yet to achieve 50 percent Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on Gender and Development target and the African Union protocol on rights of women in Africa.
According to NGO Gender coordination network information, the organisation managed to achieve 22 percent female parliamentarian representation in 2009 general election and the organisation hopes to achieve 50 percent representation with support from its development partners.