All women have to be aware of the pitfalls and these stereotypes and should equip themselves with the knowledge, experience and a lot of confidence, … - Chileshe Kapwepwe

For example, we know cases where if a woman just raises her voice to make a point, she is often told she is hysterical or aggressive, but when a man does the same it’s accepted as being assertive.

As a strong advocate of advancing women in all positions, from boardroom to politics, I however also believe that while quotas are welcome, we have to be careful not to just put women in positions for the sake of filling the quotas. We have to have women fill these positions because they are qualified and capable of doing the job. Because if they are not, then we create a situation where it’s like, “look we gave a woman a chance but she couldn’t do the job”. So we have to make sure women are ready when the quotas come, because we are able, we are capable, we are qualified and have the right skills.

But we should applaud ourselves where we have women in these positions because in some respects we have moved up, more so in the corporate world where there is more of a level playing field than in politics. This perhaps is because in politics the chances for women to make it higher up are harder.