I found this article that discusses women in Africa today, and the struggle they still face in finding equality. In many areas women are still not legally equal to men, and where they are the male still often times makes many of the decisions. In most areas they have little rights to inheritance, which makes it difficult to own land or accumulate money. Traditionally women are often times in charge of the home, children, elderly and farming like the women in the picture below while men go out to find a job. This leaves women with little opportunity for earning money. Even though there has been more of an effort to give girls an education than there was in the past they still have a lower enrollment rate and higher drop out rate than boys do. This is because families would rather spend what money they do have to educate a son instead because they are seen as the providers, girls are seen as household workers, there is pressure in many cultures for girls to marry at a young age, and lastly there is a lack of separate restrooms for girls. It is necessary to overcome this low education of women though, because when they are properly educated and allowed to help make decisions the productivity of society rises. Health problems also hold women back. Greater difficulties with health for women often times arise during pregnancy/birthing because of female genital mutilation(still affects some girls today), pregnancy at a young age, an not enough properly trained medical assistants. Thankfully, women are being given more options to have some power, such as in the government to make changes. Many have also had the opportunity to create their own path in life, and be successful working in business. It may be a slow process, but they are working on continuing to make a better life for the women of Africa.

As we're learning this week about the women of modern day Africa I thought this would be an appropriate article. They have quite obviously had a long, rough journey in the gaining back of their respect after the ideologies of male supremacy brought in by Europeans. Sadly, in this specific area being colonized has really set them back. Back before colonial rule women were essentially thought of as equals to males. Going from a respected status to such a degraded status had to be extremely difficult. I'm sure women really questioned their self worth as they went through such terrible treatment. Even now days after colonial rule we can see they're struggling to reach back up to the point of equality. Things such as the low rate in education among women and health problems only add to the struggle to create this equality. This way of life is just so engrained in them now that it's difficult to come out of. I'm sure it gives many people hope for the future as we see women entering positions in government.