Ruth Meena
Ruth E. Meena (born 1946) is a Tanzanian feminist activist and political scientist. She was a professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Dar es Salaam.
Quotes
[edit]- ALL women have in-born leadership character. What needs to be added is talent promotion, and this mostly should be done to African women, who work hard but earn very little.
- Prof Meena also emphasizes that women have in-born listening skills, an important leadership element which serves in maintaining flexibility, among other qualities. The only huddle that women have to grapple with is the ‘outdated’ patriarchal system which has thrived for ages and maintained by men for fear of being conquered.
- There is nothing to fear, women are naturally powerful in leadership and have been so in their own right ever since they became mothers. Almost all poor families’ survival depends much on the struggles of the mothers.
- Is there any other leadership technique that is worth the word than providing food to family members, sending children to school and providing them with all necessary educational materials and even making sure they have access to health services any time,” she queries. Yet, it is the same women whom society has denied them their rights to take up leadership positions , including those in the political and economic arena
- I believe it is time relevant appointing authorities including President John Magufuli to see that more and more women get leadership positions and see how they are capable enough to bring about quick family and national positive changes.
- Prof. Ruth Meena (known as Dada Ruti) was born in Moshi in 1946; she is a feminist, human right activist, scholar and author of several publications on gender and women empowerment. She was the first female Tanzanian Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration and served 27 years at University of Dar es salaam, after serving 9 years at both teachers colleges and secondary schools. In 1991 she coordinated the Gender Program for East and Southern Africa under SAPES, based in Harare, Zimbabwe, forming a network of scholars that produced a book titled Southern Africa, Conceptual and Theoretical Issues. She is a co-founder and the first chairperson of the board of Environmental and Human Rights, Care and Gender Organization, an active member of the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP) co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the Women Fund-Trust, (WFT-Trust). In 2013 she actively engaged in the women’s rights movement in demanding incorporation of women’s rights in the constitutional review process. She has published, authored or co-authored and edited various books, reports, journal articles, and papers on gender, women empowerment and feminist discourses.
