Today is World Health Day and the theme for this year is “Together for a fairer, healthier world”.  The topic on my blog will be The Woman and the Infertility. In the typical African society where a high premium is placed on childbearing and a ticking clock is created following a marriage ceremony, couples are placed under extra and undue pressure when they are unable to conceive early in the marriage. Sadly, the woman bears a large brunt of the effects of this difficulty with conception.  In this article, I seek to explore the erroneously created and patriarchy fuelled misbelief that women are solely responsible for difficulties with conceiving, reasons why couples have difficulty conceiving, and lastly the options available to struggling couples. Infertility is defined as the inability of a couple to conceive within 1 year. In truth, almost half of the cases of infertility are due to problems with the man, with the woman (who is very often and perhaps almost always vil...

 Looking up from her sewing machine, Theresa stared at her husband. He was snoring and turning about in his sleep. This meant that he was not enjoying it at all. From where she sat, she could tell that he was tired and frustrated. Life had not been kind to them recently. Stretching the fabric and pushing it further under the needle, her mind wandered to the day he had come home. It was a Tuesday afternoon. She had been sewing too. But she hadn’t been sewing for money. She was just trying to create a new concept she had been thinking about.  She had just stretched the material when she heard his footsteps at the gate. At first, she wondered who it was. She wasn’t expecting anyone that day. Many of her friends who would normally pay her surprise visits from time to time were out of town. And with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, most people were skeptical about visiting people.  She kept trying to figure out who was coming until she heard him greet someone. Shocked, her ...

Clara, a young mother of two was recently hired in a company she had always wanted to work in. On her first day, her boss asked her to go through the journal that contained his weekly schedule and sort out the important meetings into a to-do list he would work with that week. Important meetings included meeting with clients, doctor's appointments, dinner dates with his wife, and meeting with government officials and the overall boss. She was to create a much smaller version of the schedule with just the very important meetings. Barely ten minutes after she got started, her boss called her to his office, gave her some money, and asked her to run to the restaurant just around the corner of the street and get him a can of sprite, a hamburger, and fries. As soon as he gave her the money, she ran across to buy them and then he called while she was there and asked her to go to the post office and pick up some mail. As soon as she got to the post office, she realized that she didn't h...

 World Poetry Day is celebrated on the 21st of March every year. To commemorate this event, I will be dedicating it to the celebration of womanhood and I will be posting three poems by three women. Poem 1  WO (nder) MAN 'It's half filled, not half empty' she clamours _exhibiting a raging compassion and affinity Here, Read on the peculiarities of a darling race! Whilst her feeble shoulders shudders from overwhelming duties Her alluring smile is so handy with no haughty gaze  And with swaying hips And with savoring lips Like some good news resounding clips Like some good books' pages flips Lustre_ity  & Human_ity 'Ooooze' from her like an oversprayed perfume _chocking the repugnant 'ahhhs' depression wears around The chambers of her heart are never shut and all stuffed with affection  She's a remarkable being who's bright Yes, an embodiment of love and light She's a Wo (nder) man -Aina Ayomide ©2021 Poem 2 "The Sufferer" Baby Girl...

 Harriet smoothened her purple peplum dress and smacked her lips. She couldn’t believe that she was attending Elvis’ family event as his plus one. She felt goosebumps as she looked into her reflection from the passenger car mirror.  They were finally doing it. And it felt great. They came down from the car.  Beaming with pride, Harriet looked over at Elvis.   “Thanks for inviting me,” she said. “It’s what I should have done long ago,” he replied, glad that she was happy too.  Walking hand in hand, they entered the compound with Elvis leading the way. When they got in, the guests were already arriving and being seated under the canopy outside the house.  Skirting the guests, Elvis took Harriet into the main house to greet his parents. “Son!” his mother screamed, throwing her hands up in excitement.  She was sitting on a chair while a professional makeup artist was tying her headgear.  “Mummy!” he replied, with as much excitement, “You look goo...

 The webinar started with an opening speech by me which resounded the essence and the relevance of International Women’s Day that is being celebrated globally. Afterward, the moderator, Ibere Chims took over by introducing the speakers. The first speaker, Adebanke Ilori, spoke on the harmful practices that limit women, especially in the Nigerian context. She made several illustrations on practices embedded in the cultural framework in our society that limit women. She highlighted some important scenarios in the corporate world where these cultural biases still exist. An example she cited is instances where women are always called upon to serve tea in the room during meetings. She mentioned female privileges, and this really resonated with me. Oftentimes, I have had discussions with some ladies who say that they do not really understand the fuss about women's empowerment. To them, women have it all. She addressed this misconception by saying that some people are blind to the realiti...

  The International Women’s Day is a day set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It is also a day where people come together to call for action to be taken towards ensuring gender equality in our communities, places of leadership, and in every aspect and sector of our economies. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #ChooseToChallenge. This theme is inspired by the fact that a challenged world is an alert world. And when we choose to challenge, we are able to inspire and effect tremendous change. This is why we are calling women, men, and people everywhere to challenge gender bias and all the negative stereotypes against women. We can do that by challenging the status quo and changing our perception towards women. As people who seek change, we need to question the agelong stereotypes, societal norms, and archaic cultural beliefs that have held women back. We need to rewrite those unwritten laws and r...