Jimoh Abibat, MSA Women Committee Coordinating Secretary, made this known in a statement signed on Friday.
The Movement for Socialist Alternative (MSA) has urged women to organise and join the struggle to end capitalism and poverty in the country.
Jimoh Abibat, MSA Women Committee Coordinating Secretary, made this known in a statement signed on Friday.
According to the group, the capitalist government uses women's voluntary unpaid employment in various sectors of society as a way to shift responsibility from itself to them.
According to the statement, the ruling class has taken a hands-off approach to giving social services to the public, such as public dining establishments, laundry facilities, and carers' homes, among other things which have sustained the stereotype of women as "homemakers."
"To add, as socialist feminists, it is important too to link this specific women's struggle with the general call to mobilise all layers of the working class to put an end to the capitalist system for a socialist society led by workers," the statement reads in part.
It also reads, "Today, March 8, marks yet another year to celebrate women internationally. It offers another opportunity to bring to the fore the significant efforts and roles women have played in the struggle for a world that is both inclusive of women's rights and better for the entirety of humanity.
"Unfortunately, this year's women's celebration is taking place in the backdrop of the Ukraine-Russia war, the Israeli-Palestinian war, and the global crises of capitalism with it is cost of living crisis which have impacted largely on women, children, and the working class in general.
"According to a press release by the UN Women on March 1, an estimated 9000 women have been killed since the Israeli-Palestinian war. These figures, sadly, do not even include those who died under the rubble or mention the statistics of children affected by the war.
"In a place like Nigeria, for instance, where the economic hardship has further tripled since the Tinubu regime, working-class women have been the major hit by the growing poverty, insecurity, illiteracy rate, and other surrounding factors in the country.
“In fact, these economic crises have driven more women into sex work and slave reserves for cheap labour under the desperate need to survive, especially single mothers— further widening the gender pay gap in most workplaces.
"With the high cost of living crisis, which has seen prices of commodities drastically high, and the crises of survival, gender-based violence as well as sexual crimes is further heightened to an alarming degree. In 2019 alone, the National Bureau of Statistics in its survey estimated that 30% of women between ages 15 and 49 have experienced physical violence and 9% have suffered sexual violence. Most times, these cases are either underreported, silenced or substituted for victim-blaming or moral/religious policing.
"More often than not, these gender roles and inequality (heightened by the capitalist system and patriarchy) have displaced most women and girls from reaching their full potential as humans. To date, most women are denied the right to inherit properties, right to equal pay, right to their body, right to abortion which is mostly criminalized, and there is a general inaccessibility to education and healthcare.
"According to the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey, only 57% of women are literate as against 81% of men. In the Northern part of the country, for instance, we see cases of the girl child being given away to early child marriage. In fact, the maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world, with 512 deaths per 100,000 live births and so on.
“It is depressing, however, to see that despite more than a century of fighting for the recognition of women's rights to bodily autonomy and freedom of choice, very little or no progress has been made nationally, particularly in African nations where the influence of family, culture, politics, economics, and religion is strong.
"While the recent development in France, which had abortion right finally securing a place in the constitution— after the 2022 Supreme Court decision to reverse the Roe & Wade case in the US— is welcomed, it is important to reiterate that only a collective, unifying working-class struggle rooted in socialism can bring about a better, inclusive society for all— queer and trans, too. End capitalism and its greed for profit and super profit, which is the root of wars and poverty in the universe today.”