06 Jul 2021

Newly crowned Miss Little Queen Botswana (LQB), Jessica Jack says there is need to do away with all social and cultural norms that inhibit inclusion and diversity of women in leadership.

The Eleven-year-old queen said after being crowned in Gaborone on Saturday that she strongly believed that an enabling environment should be created for girls and women to flourish, both in decision making and political leadership.

When asked if Botswana was ready to have a female president, she said not yet due to the patriarchal society that teaches people that males make better leaders than their female counterparts.

Jessica said this cultural belief made a lot of women, even those who were capable, to at times, doubt themselves.

Therefore, until such a time when “we have a change in cultural orientation and equal representation of females and males in political leadership Botswana cannot be ready for a female president”.

Her answer so impressed the judges that they gave her the crown. Jessica gave an example of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi where there was only one female paramount chief being Kgosi Mosadi of Balete.

She said women were woefully under-representated in Botswana’s political landscape as there were only three elected female Members of Parliament, out of 57, although 55 percent of voters were women.

Jessica, who believes winning LQB would also help her to stay focused and follow her dreams, urged her peers to follow theirs and never give up.

She also called on women to support each other and proposed that leadership and politics be taught at grassroots level.

Meanwhile, the competition’s director, Gaonyafale Phuti said Miss Little Queen Botswana was for children aged between 8 and 12 years, adding that the inaugural pageant attracted 17 finalists.

“Our aim is to groom young girls to be responsible and become future leaders,” she said, adding that the pageant attracted girls from all parts of the country.

Phuti said working under COVID-19 restrictions was challenging, as they had to reduce their activity line up, to comply with the two hours maximum time set for events.

She said they also did not get sponsors as most companies were reeling from the ‘effects’ of COVID-19.

Phuti thus appealed to the business community to sponsor future events, saying the pageant was still growing and needed financial support. ENDS