Research & Insights · Gender & power

Gender & power

Explore essays and reflections on gender & power, grounded in African realities and open to new questions.

5 August 2026

Why sameness is not fairness!

Why treating everyone equally can produce unequal outcomes Few ideas sound more fair than the promise to treat everyone the same. Governments promise equal access to public serv…

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Gender & power

24 July 2026

When baseline data carries hidden theories of change

The questionnaire was not the problem. The problem was the theory of change it was carrying. Early in my career, I was part of a team conducting a feasibility study for a rural…

6 min read · Read essay

Gender & power

23 July 2026

The questions we ask shape the roads we build

Rethinking transport, development and the realities we fail to see Development does not begin with projects. It begins with assumptions. Before governments build roads, design p…

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Gender & power

30 December 2025

The gatherings we must keep

When was the last time you spent an afternoon without a plan? Not an idle moment, but a deliberate stretch of hours devoted only to the company of others. Last Saturday, my husb…

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Gender & power

23 December 2025

The water in your mouth: On silence, strategy, and the unspoken dynamics of power

What does it mean to hold your peace? Is silence a shield or a cage? When does a tactical pause become a permanent surrender? I carry a specific piece of wisdom from my mother,…

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Gender & power

7 December 2025

How women build their own safety

When the police do not come, when the law is a distant rumour, when the house is no longer a shelter, what happens? The world assumes paralysis. It expects waiting. It is wrong.…

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Gender & power

3 December 2025

He Was a Good Man: Deconstructing the Duality of Abusers

What do we choose to protect when we call a violent man ‘good’? The phrase echoes in the aftermath, a haunting refrain that isolates survivors and shields perpetrators. We hear…

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Gender & power

1 December 2025

The architecture of silence: How we built a world where violence thrives

What sound does a silenced woman make in a society that calls her suffering peace? We inherit cultural artefacts as wisdom. We rarely examine them as the foundational concrete o…

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Gender & power

8 November 2025

The unnamed feminists: Doing the work without the label

I have been conducting feminist research almost all my working life. However, I kept saying I am not a feminist. I never explicitly indicated this approach in my methodology sec…

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Gender & power

17 September 2024

The silent scars - The lasting impact of domestic violence on children

When I first began this series on intimate partner violence (IPV), I did not originally plan to include its impact on children. However, as the discussions unfolded, it became c…

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Gender & power

13 September 2024

Sexual violence as the ultimate betrayal in marriage

One of my colleagues once called me bold, and another added, “No subject seems to be off limits for you.” And you know what? They are right. I address topics others might shy aw…

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Gender & power

8 September 2024

Understanding and confronting physical violence in relationships

Welcome back to our ongoing series exploring the progressive nature of abuse in relationships. In previous posts, we examined various forms of abuse, such as economic and financ…

8 min read · Read essay