Addis Ababa University (AAU) office of Gender and HIV/AIDS Directorate held an official meeting under a topic marked as “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” at Nelson Mandella hall on March 17, 2022.

Sewalem Tsega (PhD), Director at Gender and HIV/AIDS Directorate office of the University, said in an interview that Women’s Day is a platform for everyone to uphold the rights of women, to promote their dignity and raise awareness of the occasional oppression practised on them.

According to Dr. Sewalem, the meeting was deliberated by inviting female scholars who have successfully resisted the major challenges of life and are now Associate Professors at AAU to share their experiences with female high-ranking students to make them efficacious.

“I do not believe that gender equality is being properly implemented in all structural areas; much remains to be done let alone in our cases even in the developed ones,” Dr. Sewalem remarked.

According to her experience from foreign countries, on the contrary of women have the highest level of responsibility, it is possible to find still others with the same level of education and work experience as men but that are paid less than men.

As Dr. Sewalem stated, though women’s participation has increased in the hierarchy following the change of government in our country, there is still a male dominance in some societies where at least basic education is need to change this scenario.

Dr. Sewalem lauded the remarkable and encouraging change in AAU of the fact that women are becoming the higher officials and leaders of the University and that more and more female assistant and associate professors are becoming deans and directors at the different institutes.

“I have no rigid philosophy that only women can solve all problems without the participation of men; I do not believe that women can make the difference by their own without men; for the prosperity and dignity of women, we always need well-meaning, honest and very cooperative men,” Sewalem finally insisted.

Reporter: Theodros Shewngizaw

Photo: Fikremariam Beyene

Editor: Abraham Girmay