Source: The Citizen
The shocking news about the victory of Donald Trump, who is going to be the 45th President of the United States might spark off a new order.

If what the President Elect promised during the campaign trail is anything to go by, I believe it will be for the worse.I guess the whole world is watching as it has become a game of sit and wait.

If Donald Trump makes true his discriminatory rhetoric against Muslims and minority groups in and outside the US, we should expect a new wave of freedom struggles.

One thing that history has taught the world very clearly is that human beings need their God-given freedom.

Anyone who tries to take that away, should expect resistance, whether one is royalty or a president. It does not matter whether a leader is of the most powerful nation on earth or not.

For months, many people outside the US and even the majority of Americans believed Hillary Clinton would win and become the first female president of the US (and in reality she won the popular vote but lost in the college vote).

A number of reasons were advanced as to why she lost. But one of the reasons for her losing is that it is because she is a woman. Most countries in the world including the US seem not to be ready to be led by a female.

The polls indicated that about 52 per cent of white women and 60 percent of white men did not vote for her, meaning that they voted for Donald Trump. Simply put, more than half of both white men and women voters in US voted for Trump.

I believe Hillary Clinton was prepared to conduct a decent campaign. She came across as a woman of decorum. Trump on the other hand seemed not to understand what decorum is all about. He went on to prove that the more courageous one is on social media platforms, the more renown one becomes. He ran a dirty campaign and emerged victorious. One of the lessons learnt from the US presidential election is that it is hard for any woman world over to become a president.

Globally, the actual number of countries on records for being led by women remains relatively low. This is despite the population of females compared to males being higher across nations. At the same time, there have been feminist movements and affirmative actions to close the gender gap in representation but we are very far off the mark.

Even when a woman becomes president, there are a number of forces ready to pull you down. For instance, Madam Dilma Rousseff, who served as the 36th President of Brazil, was impeached and removed from office this year.

In Malawi Joyce Hilda Banda became president in 2012 after Bingu wa Mutharika passed away. However, two years later Peter Mutharika beat her in a very tight race.

As women we still have a long way to go as far as top political positions are concerned. We need to form voting blocs all over the world, which articulate our causes.

In the case of our dear motherland, we urgently need more women to stand for parliamentary seats. If over half of the elected the MPs (not nominated or special seats), are women, perhaps we could call the shots. Women must demand equality through word and deed, and we should stop hating each other and we should stop refusing to vote for fellow women.

By Saumu Jumanne

• Africa
• International