The modern world seems to find it very easy to proclaim women to be the most important creatures alive, and maybe even go as far as running campaigns in this regard, but in reality, only very little is done.
The world is still very unkind to women.
And in all spaces too, including the creative industries across the world: talking music, dance, arts et al. As is in our nature, we have had conversations with black creative women everywhere, and these have given us the opportunity to hear their stories and share them too.
We have quotes from Izzy Odigie, Stephanie Okocha, Adah Ohh, Martina Abosede & Olufunmilayo Sawyer on challenges they have faced as women working in the creative industry.
Izzy Odigie
As a woman, maybe not me particularly, but I see how female dancers don’t get the respect they deserve. For instance, in the African space, your value as a dancer is very much connected to the artist that you are co-signed with or the artist that you perform with.
Most of the time, if you are able to roll with artists, you are seen as cooler. However, if a female dancer is being seen with a particular artist over and over, the first thing that comes to mind is that she is involved sexually with the artist. It is a wrong notion that should be eradicated.
Stephanie Okocha
Firstly, I feel the industry needs better structure. Creators like producers and songwriters need to be better perceived or seen and even treated. Inclusion [diversity] can also be better worked on, I believe.
Olufunmilayo Sawyer
We popularly define feminism as the equality of all sexes in every sphere of life. But what we fail to realise is that without equity, we can’t achieve full equality which is the main aim of the phenomenon. Without equity, we will keep going round in circles beating against the wind.
Martina Abosede
I just do my own thing and I try not to put the “woman” label in front of everything. I try to just have a “this is me, I’m doing my job” focus, but I guess it’s gonna take some time before that label can really be removed. For the moment I’m just doing what I love.
Ada Ohh
Being a black female, I disliked putting up that title and all these circumstances on myself. It felt like there was this ceiling that I kept on hitting. I had access to a lot of things for my career but I was still humbled by the standard of things here in Canada. That’s why I moved to Lagos, because I felt there were better opportunities for me there.
These stories and many more untold are the reason we are joining hands with all the women in the world to dedicate the month of March to feminine awesomeness, themed “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. You would join us if you cared about being a human being.
Itty can be caught studying African pop culture, writing about it or hosting a relationship podcast. When he's not doing any of these, then he's definitely at a bar, getting mocktail.
