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Monrovia – A professional Liberian lady, Mariama Kamara, has made the call for her fellow countrywomen to lend supporting hands rather than pull down the potential ones of their kind.
She acknowledged that women in the country have developed and are well capacitated nowadays as compared to yesteryear, attributing the advancement of Liberian women to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who Mariama said became a driving force in pushing women to believe in themselves.
In a well-articulated literature posted on social media Friday, Mariama observed that although the women of Liberia have come a long way in evolving from being mere housewives to bread winners on to becoming Medical Doctors, Lawyers, Judges, Lecturers, Managers, CEOs, and etcetera, it is just few women who she said are the ones making it to the top.
“Why are fewer women making it to the top? Why are fewer women successful in their endeavors? Why are women who are capable find themselves struggling to be heard? Mariama quipped, noting that the answers to her questions lie within the Liberian women themselves.
Giving clues to the answers for her questions, she averred that many Liberian women would rather see a fellow woman down to nothing, than to see her at the top.
“We would rather bring down a fellow woman who is struggling to make it to the top, than to give her a prop up. We would rather bring a successful woman down with lies and slanders, than to help provide resources to help her succeed,” Mariama wrote.
She accused the women of Liberia of branding each other and standing in the way of fellow ladies as obstacles and hindrances once a typical Liberian woman finds herself in a position to suppress other females.
“We rather join forces with men to pull down a successful woman or to make it impossible for her to succeed. We rather destroy her marriage and laugh at her later, than see her marriage succeed. We rather laugh at her childlessness, than pray that she overcomes her situation. We rather mock her if she’s single than see her in a relationship,” she stressed.
A graduate of the University of Liberia, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology/Management, also with a degree of Master of Business Administration from Cuttington University, Mariama, who is of the belief that the best way for Liberian women to succeed in Liberia’s male dominated society, is when females in the country collectively eschew slandering each other and focus on lending support to one another, noted that most women in Liberia think they are in competition with each other rather than to compete with the harsh realities of life.
“Women will only succeed in our male dominated society, if we stop slandering our fellow women. Women will only succeed, if women support other women. We cannot have women succeeding if we continue with “not me, not her” attitude. We won’t succeed until we pull up other women whose hands are up and [are] willing to come from the ditch. We won’t succeed until we stop breaking up our best friends’ relationships and marriages. We won’t succeed until we stop bad mouthing potential women. Women can only be successful if they are supported by other women,” Mariama emphasized.
She cautioned that Liberian women refrain from pulling each other down, expressing delight in solidarity shown by female MPs in the Kenyan parliament, when they walked out of session Wednesday, in protest of their colleague, a mother of three Zuleika Hassan, who was thrown out of session for taking the youngest of her children, a five-month-old baby with her to work because of a domestic emergency.
According to Kenya House’s rules, “strangers”, including children, are not allowed into the chamber.
“Stop pulling each other down! I like what the female MPs did in Kenya less than 2 days ago. They walked out of parliament when their fellow woman was thrown out because she brought her five months old baby to session due to a family emergency. Their male counterparts said the female MP was being disrespectful by breaking the law,” said Mariama.
She intimated that like the Kenyan female MPs did for their colleague, so is how she wants in similar fashion, Liberian women to begin standing up for each other.
“That is the Spirit. Support one another in difficult situations. Support your fellow women in the work places. Support a woman who has what it takes to make a difference.
Women of Liberia Support your Counterparts! Stop Branding Each Other!!!!” Mariama wrote.
Madam Mariama Kamara, a mother on one, is a certified Governance Architect, by the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, who has acquired skills in Female Leadership Development from RIPA International in the United Kingdom and the Pointman Leadership Institute.
She did Project Planning & Management/ Risk Management at the Liberia Institute for Professional Administration (LIPA) and Afromoney, in Accra, Ghana, and is a Management Consultant who has expertise in Curriculum Development, Strategic Planning, Organizational Planning, Policy Formulation and Management Development Training.
She served LIPA for six years in several capacities, including the post of Human Resource Director, Project Coordinator, Program Development Specialist, and Training Specialist respectively.
Prior to joining the workforce at LIPA, Madam Kamara served as lecturer at the Cuttington University in Suakoko, Bong County and later rose to the position of Chairperson of the Department of Management at the institution.
Mariama currently works with the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) as Human Resource Manager responsible for Recruitment and Performance Management.
