When women come together

Aug 14, 2024

When Women Build Together
Women’s contributions are often described in terms of resilience, courage, or inspiration. Those qualities matter. But they are not the full story.

Across Africa, women have not only resisted exclusion or broken barriers. They have built systems, often under conditions that were actively hostile to their participation. They organised economies, governed communities, defended territories, preserved culture, and sustained social order long before these roles were formally recognised.

What becomes possible when women come together is not just solidarity. It is capacity.

Not symbolic unity. Operational unity.

Beyond visibility: the real constraints
Women leaders, particularly in African contexts, operate within layered constraints that are rarely acknowledged in full. Cultural expectations, political exclusion, limited access to capital, uneven media representation, and at times direct intimidation all shape the terrain.

But the deeper challenge is structural.

Too often, women are invited into leadership without control over institutions, without authority over budgets, without the ability to design systems that can survive beyond individuals. Visibility is offered where power is withheld.

As a result, women are celebrated while the structures they work within remain fragile.

History reminds us what real leadership looks like
African history does not lack examples of women exercising full authority under pressure.
Yaa Asantewaa mobilised military resistance against British colonial forces not as a symbolic figure, but as a strategic leader defending sovereignty.

Nzinga Mbande governed through diplomacy and warfare, sustaining statehood amid relentless external threat.

Idia reshaped political and military power within the Kingdom of Benin, institutionalising women’s influence at the highest levels of governance.

These women were not anomalies. They were operators. Builders. Stewards of systems.

Modern leadership under real conditions
Today’s African women leaders inherit a different but equally demanding landscape.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf governed a post-conflict nation where rebuilding trust mattered as much as rebuilding infrastructure.

Amina Mohammed operates at the intersection of global diplomacy and national development, navigating institutions that move slowly by design.

Wangari Maathai built a movement that endured precisely because it embedded environmental action into community systems, not campaigns.

Fatma Samoura entered one of the most entrenched institutions in global sport and redefined what administrative leadership could look like.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala now leads a multilateral institution under strain, where technical competence and political realism must coexist.

What unites these women is not representation. It is institutional weight.

What actually moves the needle
When women come together with a shared purpose, the question is not whether they can inspire change. History has answered that.

The real question is whether they are positioned to:
- Design institutions that do not collapse when founders step back
- Control resources, not just advocate for them
- Make trade-offs that are unpopular but necessary
- Stay present through slow, unglamorous operational work

Progress does not come from more panels or proclamations. It comes from durable systems that can absorb pressure and continue functioning.

The work ahead
Significant gains have been made in education, access, and visibility. But access without authority is insufficient. Education without institutional pathways stalls. Representation without responsibility fades.

If women are to shape Africa’s future meaningfully, the task ahead is not simply to uplift one another. It is to build together, with seriousness, patience, and a long view.

That work is harder than celebration. It is quieter than protest. And it matters more.

From the builder’s seat, this is where real change begins.