Leadership Style – A secret technique to find weaknesses
Many leaders constantly looking for ways to refine his leadership style are. These evolutionary “ever changing” leadership style are leading. They devote a lot of time reading management books, classics such as knowing who moved my cheese? ‘Back to front.
A well stocked library, leadership and management as well as they manage to lead and follow developments online soon. All the top to an RSS feed use the following blogs for more efficient experience.
These ‘major’ career leaders, took Myers-Briggs personality test at some point, maybe just a way they see the world as a way to get feedback on it. Such as their personal ENTJ Myers-Briggs personality type, with another perspective on their weaknesses (as normalized by their particular type of survey makers) have been able to benefit.
Now, you see, or leader, I am describing above may not be a part of yourself. I have taken to the extreme example, so that probably only manage to fit in a small percentage of the population above the one you try to assess your leadership style a couple of activities could perform? You probably have not all of them, but there are very high.
For example, something you could not seek leadership style questionnaire. Different from the Myers-Briggs personality test, because how you lead others, not necessarily how all of you (including pets, senior officials and the Myers-Briggs test equals) with particular attention to the conversation focused.
These tests usually tell you that either an autocratic leadership style, a democratic leadership style, leadership style bureaucracy (which is actually more popular and common than you’d imagine that!) Or have a laissez-faire leadership style. There ‘charismatic’ or ‘inspirational’ style as a couple of other leadership styles, but these tend to overlap too much with the aforementioned people, and usually left out of the way such assessments.
But the search for understanding your leadership style does not end there! Oh no! You may want to go down other routes, a multi-source feedback activity. This is were you and your colleagues, superiors and subordinates can send a link to ask them questions about their behavior in the fill. These surveys are always safe and fast electronic order can be processed, as privacy is extremely important when co-workers or you are asking for feedback from people below.
Such a little difficult to interpret the survey results, as the ‘survey respondant bias’ is the way that you, or alternatively those who wish to compliment you with a grudge against the people filling out more is likely to result shows can be anonymous survey than those who are indifferent. The odd result is quite a shock when you open your Inbox can be saved can lead to!
I up at least 6 great ways to evaluate your leadership style is listed, and I guarantee you have not tried them all!
Maxwell’s Forty-Ninth Year And Faraday’s ?Grace And Favour’ House
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell is generally regarded as one of the outstanding physicists of the nineteenth century. He made important advances in the theory of electricity and magnetism, as well as in thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases. Many modern ideas about these topics are still based on his work from the mid-1800s. Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and his father greatly encouraged him in his intellectual pursuits. At the age of fourteen, while a student at the Edinburgh Academy, he wrote a paper on ovals and geometric figures with more than two foci. His paper was read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh by an adult member because it was considered inappropriate for a young boy to present it to the society himself. Although some of the ideas in this paper had been discussed earlier by the renowned French mathematician René Descartes, it was still an amazing achievement for a teenage boy.
At sixteen, Maxwell entered Edinburgh University, where he studied physics, mathematics, and logic. Three years later he went to Cambridge University, from which he graduated in 1854 with a degree in mathematics. In 1856 Maxwell became professor of natural philosophy at Marischal College in Aberdeen. There he became interested in the theory of gases and in the study of electricity and magnetism. His position as professor, however, was eliminated in 1860 when Marischal and another college merged.
Maxwell spent the next five years at King’s College in London. He successfully applied statistical methods to describe the movements of the tiny invisible particles of a gas; an approach adopted a century earlier by the Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli, but with less sophisticated mathematics. The Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann also studied the problem of gas behavior at the same time as Maxwell, and the names of both men are usually associated with the kinetic theory of gases.
Because of his overwhelming interest in the science of electricity, Maxwell was drawn to the writings of the English physicist Michael Faraday, who had begun publishing his three-volume Experimental Researches in Electricity in 1839. Faraday’s approach was almost entirely experimental, and Maxwell saw this as an opportunity to treat the subject in mathematical terms. Beginning in the 1850s, Maxwell published several papers on electricity, including the analogy between electricity and heat from a mathematical point of view. These research efforts culminated in his important writings in the 1860s and 1870s on electromagnetic theory and his identification of light as an electromagnetic wave. Maxwell’s theoretical conclusions about electro-magnetism are summarized in a set of four equations known as Maxwell’s equations, which first appeared in his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873 and were later cast in their modern form by other physicists.
In 1865 Maxwell resigned his position in London and returned to his family estate Glenair in Scotland, where he continued his scientific work for five years. In 1870, however, a new chair and laboratory of physics were established at Cambridge University, and Maxwell eventually accepted an offer after two other physicists had refused. Maxwell continued his work in electricity and magnetism, organized the new laboratory, and edited the papers of Henry Cavendish for whom the laboratory was named. Early in 1879 Maxwell’s health began to decline, and he died several months later during his forty-ninth year.
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, the leading chemist and natural philosopher in England during the middle third of the nineteenth century, discovered the principle behind the electric motor (1821), benzene (1825), the electric transformer and generator (1831), the laws of electrolysis (early 1830s), and the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism (1845), which enabled him to develop the field theory of electromagnetism, one of the cornerstones of modern physics.
Faraday was born on September 22, 1791, in Newington Butts, south of London. His father, a blacksmith, belonged to the Sandemanians, a small literalist sect (in which the members believe in the literal truth of the Bible) of Christianity. Faraday was fully committed to this sect, becoming a deacon in 1832 and an elder in the 1840s and again in the 1860s. He married a fellow Sandemanian, Sarah Barnard, in 1821 and died on August 25, 1867, in his “grace and favour” house (a house given by a monarch to a subject in recognition of worth and of need) at Hampton Court. In his scientific research, Faraday sought to determine the laws of nature that he believed God had written at the creation of the universe. Although it was only toward the end of his life that problems began to emerge between some types of Christianity and science, mostly in response to Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, published in 1859, Faraday did not see any conflict between them.
Faraday attended a day school and in 1805 began an apprenticeship as a bookbinder, which was to last for seven years. During this time he developed a strong interest in science, particularly chemistry, and in 1812, the final year of his apprenticeship, he attended four lectures delivered by Humphry Davy at the recently founded (1799) Royal Institution in London’s West End. Faraday sent his notes on Davy’s lectures to Davy asking for a job in the field of science; he was eventually appointed as an assistant in the Royal Institution’s laboratory. Between the fall of 1813 and spring of 1815 he toured Europe with Davy and helped him establish the fact that iodine was a chemical element. Returning to England, Faraday was reappointed to the Royal Institution and promoted through the ranks, becoming the director of its laboratory in 1825 and first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in 1833. In these roles, Faraday established Christmas lectures for children and Friday evening discourses, both of which series still continue.
During the 1820s much of Faraday’s work was centered on chemistry. He aided Davy in his disastrous efforts to protect electrochemically the copper bottoms of ships and with the equally unsuccessful project to improve optical glass. In 1823 Faraday liquefied the gas chlorine for the first time and in the 1840s he liquefied several more gases. His liquefaction of chlorine resulted in a bitter break with Davy, by now president of the Royal Society, who believed that Faraday had not given him sufficient credit for his part in the work. Davy thus tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to block Faraday’s election to the Royal Society. Two years later Faraday discovered, but did not investigate fully, a new chemical that he named “bi-carburet of hydrogen.” Nearly ten years later Eilhardt Mitscherlich, a chemistry professor in Berlin, first undertook a detailed study of the substance that he renamed benzene. Faraday, nevertheless, is credited with benzene’s discovery, and in 1925 there were major celebrations throughout England marking the 100-year anniversary of Faraday’s discovery.
Following his 1831 electromagnetic work, Faraday turned his attention to electrochemistry. The decomposition of chemical compounds was a standard test for the presence of electricity. In his extensive use of this test, he observed phenomena contradicting Davy’s theory that electrochemical decomposition occurred at the metal pole. Faraday found that decomposition occurred in the substance itself and the poles did not need to be metal. All this led Faraday to develop a new language of electrochemistry. With a number of classical scholars, notably William Whewell, Faraday introduced terms such as electrolysis, electrolyte, electrode, anode, cathode, and ion (although he said there would be little need for this last term).
Faraday was thus able to enunciate his two laws of electrolysis. His second law implied that both matter and electricity were atomic in nature. Faraday was deeply opposed to atomism, especially the theory proposed by John Dalton, and indeed held a very antimaterialist view. It was clear to Faraday, however, that the law of definite proportions also required some sort of atomic theory. What Faraday proposed in the 1840s was that matter was perceived where lines of force met at a particular point in space. A direct experimental outcome of this radical theory was Faraday’s discovery in 1845 of the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism. The field theory that Faraday developed from this was able to solve a number of problems in physics that were not amenable to conventional approaches. This was one reason why field theory was taken up quite quickly by elite natural philosophers such as William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and James Clerk Maxwell. Nevertheless, the theory was not generally accepted for some time because it was seen by many physicists as opaque and, in origin, nonmathematical. However, as the German organic chemist Justus von Liebig pointed out, this occurred because physicists did not recognize Faraday’s background as a chemist, a factor Liebig thought crucial in the development of Faraday’s theory: “To physicists, who have approached physics by the road of chemistry, Faraday’s memoirs sound like admirably beautiful music”.
How To Be More Captivating To Women Making Use Of The Capabilities Of A Wonderful Dancer
You can use what has been suggested here to become more attractive to women.
Aim to have the moves blend together in a flowing, seamless way as if it is just one move. The a woman can relax, let go and flow with the feelings of the music and dance.
Women of all standards of dance have said that they prefer a man who has just a few simple moves danced well than a man who has a lot of moves not danced well.
LEAD – partner dancing has a lead and follower so a man needs to lead – clear signals of what the move is going to be so that the follower knows where she is going. Invite don’t yank. ‘Pull’ with a delicate touch as if a tread of silk not steel.
We have learnt from the Healing World of Tango that the three fundamental moves are FRAME – CONFIDENCE – MUSICALITY. As in dance so in life and love, perhaps?
MUSICALITY – although this is a more advanced topic it follows on naturally from the beat. above. “Dance is music made visible” as the saying goes. Musicality has a dictionary definition of: skill and good judgment in playing music. Dance should be musical – melodies, harmonies, different tempos, pauses, fast, slow.
The above are things are things that we can do without having to have any talent at dancing or have to develop in our dance. Yet they can make the dance a good experience and help women enjoy dancing with you.
GOOD PERSONAL HYGIENE – dancing is jokingly referred to as a contact sport. Good personal hygiene is common sense.
THANK YOU – thank her at the end of the dance. Comments like ‘I enjoyed dancing with you’, ‘I look forward to dancing with you later’ are the last taste of the meal. Be sincere – there is always something that was good about the dance.
Again, I try to be as sincere as possible. If I am concerned with her well being and enjoyment, saying ‘I am enjoying dancing with you’ when it may feel a bit uneasy is OK because the intention is to say to her that it is OK and I would like you to feel OK with me regardless of whether it is a good dance.
GENUINE COMPLIMENT – sometimes when I sense that the lady is not feeling comfortable, maybe she feels inadequate at dance, feels not genuinely wanted as a dance partner etc, I may say ‘I enjoy dancing with you’, ‘you follow well’, ‘great spin’.
HER NAME – our name is the nicest sound we hear. If you ever hear your name mentioned in the background you automatically and instictively focus on it and place attention there. It is also a sign that you have a connection and that you see the person as an individual, a person, rather than depersonalised. Asking her name shows interest and attention and also helps to create a connection.
CONNECTION – you may not know her. Imagine in a work situation you ask someone to help out with something and you walk with her to the place and engage in the activity. It would be very strange not to break the ice with some small talk (are you enjoying the dance, it was a good class dont you think, which move in the class did you like?). So to in dance. It dissolves that separation that exists by default.
EYE CONTACT – not inflexible staring but without eye contact it gives the signal that one is unsatisfied with the other person. It also signifies that very little connection can occur. Also, avoid looking at other dances or eyeing up one’s next dance partner. Women have said this lacks being present, connected and interested in her.
How they can meausure this I don’t know! A dance friend said that she had dance with a ‘non-smiling’ guy and she ended up feeling glum!
SMILE – smiling is and so important. It was one of the most significant aspects that made for a good dance. A smile is a signal from ancient times that we are a friend not a foe. It also signals that we are enjoying the dance and enjoying being with the person.
Now these qualities are the same features that women find attractive in a man when dating or in romance. See how you can use these qualities to your talks and dates with women.
Having spent five years dancing a variety of dance styles with a whole range of dancers and venues, I have summarised what women have said to me when I asked the question ‘what makes a good male lead?’
Women love to dance! They love to have a good male lead in partner dancing. It is not about the moves but about movement and the way a man uses his body. You do not have to be a good dancer or even a dancer to be able to make a woman happy on the dance floor.
How to be more captivating to women making use of the capabilities of a wonderful dancer.
“How to Find a Great Leader in Network Marketing”
If you want to know how to find a great leader in network marketing or internet marketing, you should decide on exactly what you want to achieve. Do a google search for that specific topic, EG if you want to become a leader and develop your own products then you should search for leaders in products development and after sifting through each persons that comes up you need to come to a conclusion with all the work that each of them has done.
Base on the success they have you then chose the one which has the success you want and then do your best to contact them either by opting in their list,email,phone,which ever way just connect,then you start hanging out with such person by going to their marketing events webinars, boat ride, reading their books. You now establish a relationship so make sure to ask all the relevant questions and start developing your own understanding of how a professional product developer think and apply those skills to get massive exposure online.
Also find out how they got started, what steps they took and the resources used to achieve success in this industry,how long it takes to get such a product developed and where do they advertise. After you obtain all the relevant information from a successful leader then you go out and follow the steps in the same order as the leader has done it, you now have all the ingrediences to develop your own skills and marketing ideas to show others that you are a leader and have your own products to show. New people will see your work and get attracted to what you produce and want to follow you to also achieve their goals.
So that is how you find great leaders in network marketing or which ever industry interest you, so if you do all the necessary steps to create your your own real estate and brand yourself as a successful upstanding network marketing leader you have no choice but to achieve the result of a top online entrepreneur and you will now attract millions of people who want to hang out with you to develop the skills you have to make them a success as well.
Car Cheap Insurance Womens
Looking for a affordable and low-priced car cheap insurance womens rates can be very hard. It was very hard for me to find a car cheap insurance womens quote for my wife that I can be happy with. I searched everywhere to find the cheapest car insurance rates. I even tried going through the Yellow Pages phonebook to call each and every single auto insurance company in my area for the best rates.
Unfortunately I was very disappointed every time I got my quotes because they ended up giving me higher rates than I had expected. It was unfair treatment to be given high rates even though my driving record was clean.
That’s when I decided to try several options that I had not tried before. I went ahead and decided to find a local agent in my area for quotes. I was able to get quick quotes from my agent quicker than I expected. But I still was not happy with the quotes that the agent had gave me. This was when I realized that going through an agent might not be the best option.
All I needed was a car cheap insurance womens quote that I can afford. I got fed up and decided to just go online to look for car insurance quotes on my own. I eventually came to find out that signing up to each and every single website took too much of my valuable time. Even though I had to do a lot of typing, I was able to get the rates that I wanted. I eventually was able to find a website that gave me quotes from the top five companies after only entering my information once.
Having to enter my information once proved to be a time saver for me. I used this to my advantage by going to these type of web sites right before my auto insurance premium was to expire.
E Learning as Cost Effective Training Solution for Women in Developing World
Most of Western society views the issue of women in the workforce and women’s rights as a non-issue. It has been tackled in the past and women, in general, are treated with equal respect as with a man. That is true; at least in western and more developed countries. In other parts of the world that still abide by patriarchal and oppressive laws of society; women are still treated like properties, incubators and nannies for the babies. Their full potential to become productive members of society is not fully realized because of the lack of education and the pressures of tradition.
In a recent TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Global Talk, Sheryl WuDunn, author of “Half the Sky”, spoke about the state of women in the world. She cited Amartya Sen, Nobel Peace Prize winner in Economics; in her essay featured on The New York Review of Books, she wrote “More than 100 million women are missing.” In the developed world, women outnumber men because women naturally live longer but in parts of the world that still lives in the dark ages, men outnumber women.
Bill Gates gave a talk in Saudi Arabia and in the question and answer segment, a man raised his hand and asked Gates what his opinion was about Saudi Arabia’s goal of being one of the top ten advanced countries in terms of technology. Gates looked at his audience. While there were women who were seated in one segregated side of the room, majority were males. Gates answered, “Well, if you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you’re not going to get too close to the Top 10.” Needless to say, the small contingent of women erupted in applause.
While this clearly is a moral issue, it is also a practical issue. Women are more or less half of the population. If men are the only ones allowed to work, countries, at best, would only progress to half of its potential. Women can be solutions to improving lives of the family and therefore, society. Education, opportunity, and support are needed to elevate not only the lives of oppressed women but also their kin.
Cost effective training solutions like elearning or learning online is just one way to develop a woman’s potential. The flexibility of schedule and relatively low cost of such a program would give a woman the opportunity to learn through virtual learning environment without having to leave her family or home.
There are of course, challenges that this kind of project will have to face:
Infrastructure. In developing countries, there are gaps in communications infrastructure. Technology is improving to make it possible for previously unconnected rural villages to communicate with the rest of civilization but there are still large gaps that have to be filled by government funding since private companies would hardly start an initiative if there is no profit in it for them. Free access to computers will also be a problem unless government or NGOs provide public computer laboratories that women and girls can use.
Government Support. Laws that oppress women needs to change. Sharia Law is just one example where women are restricted to the house. Allowing women to go to school and work means they can contribute financially to the household, giving them a greater sense of purpose and control over their lives.
Societal Support. A lot of women face a vicious cycle of oppression due to tradition and culture. It is extremely hard to change the minds of the masses when they have been used to old ways and customs. Overcoming societal pressure would only be achieved once the women have gone on to succeed in their endeavors proving to themselves and their peers that women are just as good as men.
Vocational courses, high school curriculums, or even primary school curriculums can be delivered through cost effective training solutions. In educating women, developing countries will increase their workforce and deliver their society from the dark ages.
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Pillars for excellence in leadership
Pillars for excellence in leadership
By Gerald Mohlabe,www.goaldrivenconsulting.com
It is known in civil engineering that every structure of lofty buildings needs strong pillars that can provide a strong and an unshakable support for the building to stand even in stormy weather.
This principle applies to leadership.
Let us go through 11 pillars for excellence in leadership:
1. Self-knowledge
Excellent leaders are people who know themselves. They know their strengths, their weaknesses, their limitations, their talents, their skills, their dreams and they know their values. They make decisions based on their values.
Self-knowledge is a powerful tool that enables great leaders to know what to correct, what to improve, what to maintain, what to develop and it also enables them to know what to learn.
2. Relationships
Good leaders know how valuable and important relationships are. They take time building good relations with their people. They know that people are the most important resource that one can have and cherish.
Good relations with people build trust. Trust is the glue that holds good leaders and their people together. Excellent leaders have a fundamental knowledge and understanding of people. This is the reason why their leadership is so excellent.
you need to treat your people as the most important asset you have in your organization. Treat them with respect and dignity. Make efforts to build good relations with your people. Good relationships make high morale possible.
3. Character
Character is the moral strength to behave in accordance with proper values and morals. The former US General, Norman H. Schwarzkof said, “Nineteen nine percent of leadership failures are character failures.” People cannot enjoy following a leader whose character is dubious and flawed.
Excellent leaders have a strong character. They know that character development and leadership development are inseparable twins. Excellence in leadership is not possible if character gets neglected.
If you want to experience excellence in leadership, you need to develop your character now. If you fail in the area of character, you fail in leadership. That is it, nothing more, nothing less.
4. Positive attitude
Attitude determines either success or failure in leadership. Attitude should never be underestimated in leadership. Former Prime minister of England Winston Churchill said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes the big difference.”
Great leaders have a positive attitude. They don’t easily give up when they are faced with problematic situations. They neither retreat nor surrender when times are tough. Instead, they remain positive and hopeful until they reach their destination.
Leaders with negative attitude make their leadership difficult for them because their minds are tattooed with negative thinking. Nothing can stop leaders with the right mental attitude from achieving goals that they want to achieve.
Excellent leaders always bear in mind that their attitudes determine what they see and how they handle their feelings.
5. Competence
Competence is the ability to achieve greatest results. Leaders whose leadership is excellent are competent. Where competence prevails, excellence prevails.
Competent leaders go extra mile in their leadership. They know that people cannot admire to follow an incompetent leader. Competence in leaders motivates followers to be competent in their area of work or duty.
6. Integrity
Integrity is the balance between words and action. Successful leaders act on what they say. They walk the talk. When integrity is absent in a leader, excellence in leadership becomes the mountain to climb.
Integrity makes a leader credible. The more credible you are in your leadership, the more excellent your leadership becomes.
People are not moved by the sweet words you utter to them, but people are moved by action that accompanies your sweet words. When what you say and what you do disagree and contradict each other, your leadership becomes futile.
7. Vision
Vision brings the sense of direction, the sense of purpose, the sense of focus and the sense of goal. Great leaders know where they are going and they know where they are taking their people. They have a clear vision for their organization. What makes these leaders great is that they know how to effectively communicate the vision to their people.
Vision is the fundamental factor that makes a great difference in leadership. A visionless leadership is a dead leadership.
Leaders with vision are driven by enthusiasm, passion, commitment and determination to achieve excellent results for their team, their division, department or their organization. Vision undergirds leaders to surmount the insurmountables in their leadership.
8. Commitment
Commitment is the ability to stick to decisions no matter the cost. It involves the sense of follow-through. Great leaders don’t just set goals, they give their all to ensure that goals are accomplished. They do not easily give up when they are confronted with great challenges that pose a threat to goal achievement.
Excellent leaders anticipate problems and position themselves to arise to the occasion. They are not easily frustrated by frustrating situations and circumstances from inside and outside of the organization because they are committed to excellent leadership.
Committed leaders break barriers; they push their way through the walls of limitation until those walls collapse. Their leadership survives any challenge. The reason for this is their commitment to excellent results.
9. Selflessness
Selflessness is about burying selfishness, wrong motives and personal agenda in the cemetery of failure and ineffectiveness. Good leaders put the interests, and needs of their organization above their own interests and needs. They do not pursue to fulfil their own personal agenda but that of their team, their division, their department or their organization.
Leadership is about the willingness to set aside one’s wants, one’s selfish interests, and one’s needs in order to seek the greatest good of the followers, of the team, division, department or organization.
10. Influence
Excellent leadership is about the ability to influence people to be the best they are capable of becoming. The author of “One Minute Manager” Ken Blanchard states,” What is leadership? It is an influence process.” People need to be motivated and inspired to action. If there is no influence, there is no motivation and inspiration to achieve great results. After all, leadership is about achieving great results. Excellent leadership stands upon the pillar of influence.
11. Prioritising
Successful leaders know that procrastination is the enemy of excellence in leadership. They know where to focus most of their energy and time. Excellent leaders focus 70% of their time, energy and resources on their strengths, they focus 25% of their time, energy and resources on learning new things and they focus 5% on working on their weaknesses.
Great leaders prioritise their projects and assignments according to their importance and urgency. When assignments are of a high importance but not urgent, they set deadlines for completion and they get those projects and assignments into their daily schedule. When the assignments are not important but urgent, they delegate them to leaders they have trained and developed.
If you want excellence in leadership, you must know what brings you the greatest return, focus your energy, time and resources on it. Prioritising is the greatest test of leadership.
Conclusion
You need to embrace these eleven pillars if you want to achieve excellence in leadership. Leadership demands excellence, therefore you must demand excellence from yourself as a leader.
I wish you all the best in your efforts to become an excellent leader.
Copyright©2007-2009 by Gerald Mohlabe. All rights reserved
http://www.goaldrivenconsulting.com
Addressing The Types Of Gender Inequality Around The World (1): Female Genital Mutilation
Female Genital Mutilation is embedded in local beliefs, values and behavioral patterns that vary from tribe to tribe but can broadly be categorized into the following: 1, Primarily Female Genital Mutilation is performed to ‘control’ women’s sexuality; overwhelmingly societies in which Female Genital Mutilation is practiced, believe that women in essence are sexually insatiable creatures that need to be ‘controlled’ to ensure monogamy (it is a common fact that a leading factor of violence against women is male insecurity issues taken out on them). Because Female Genital Mutilation in its most severe form includes the narrowing of the vagina opening, men even go as far as believing that their sexual pleasure will thereby be increased! 2, Based extensively on mythical reasons, Female Genital Mutilation is seen as part of a girl becoming a woman. Examples of such determinant myths are the danger of the clitoris growing to the size of a penis, Female Genital Mutilation enhancing female fertility and promoting child survival after birth (conclusive studies have proven the exact opposite!). 3, A normal vagina looking ‘ugly’ to men and therefore mutilate, with the resulting image being more ‘appealing’ already! 4, Female Genital Mutilation is carried out on supposed religious pretexts such as the ‘Sunna’ prescript in the Holy Qu’uran as neither Islam nor Christianity sanction the practice. 5, In furtherance of the first category, Female Genital Mutilation is a prerequisite for marriage. Regarding women by and large being economically dependent on men in many parts of the impoverished world, men who out of their own inferiority demand absolute loyalty from their (potential) spouses, place a high importance on the procedure, thereby compelling many females to undergo Female Genital Mutilation in the first place.
Female Genital Mutilation bears no health benefits whatsoever. Instead, it reduces the quality of life, sexual function and overall well-being of the patients who have had it performed on and additionally causes permanent trauma. A WHO published study of 2006 directly relates Female Genital Mutilation to the health implications on its victims and their babies, thereby clearly confirming its associated lethality. Women who have had fgm are significantly more likely to experience difficulties during labor and their babies are more likely to die as a result of the practice, as serious complications during childbirth include the need to have a cesarean section, dangerously heavy bleeding after the birth of the baby and prolonged hospitalization following the birth. The study was said to have also found that there was an increased need to resuscitate babies whose mother had Female Genital Mutilation performed on. It additionally showed the death rate among babies during and immediately after birth being much higher for those born to mothers with victimized by Female Genital Mutilation. Furthermore, it estimated that in the African context and additional 10 to 20 babies die per 1000 deliveries as a result of the practice.
Female Genital Mutilation as a practice is categorized as: Type I being excision of the prepuce, with or without excision of the part of the clitoris; Type II involving the excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora and Type III (also known infibulation) excising part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening.
Burkina Faso, according to the U.S. State Department has a prevalence rate of 71.6% with Type II being the most common form practiced. Whereas 66.35% of girls underwent the procedure in 1996, the prevalence rate amongst them has significantly dropped to 25% in 2005, mainly due to the extensive public sensitization campaigns run by government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the fight against female genital mutilation. While burkinabes have gradually come to realize the hazardous impact of Female Genital Mutilation, the situation remains serious with the cross border migration of groups of people from countries where the practice is still a norm. These immigrants have not been exposed to the anti-fgm campaigns as much as native burkinabes and as such widely see no wrong in their doings. With more excisors giving up their trade and being re-trained alongside help from the government and NGOs, these new groups of people increasingly resort to performing the operation in ‘underground’ urban clinics (run by medical personnel making a lot of money from it) or rural hideouts where the likes of native doctors still conduct the practice. They also choose to have their daughters excised soon after birth to avoid being caught by the authorities and also in order not to let the girls remember the experience and pain when they grow up.
Such females thus have their lives endangered and ruined needlessly, and being blatant examples of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. ‘Mother Nature – Burkina Faso’ is a visual address of the very specific issue of the resurgence of Female Genital Mutilation in Burkina Faso through increased cross border migrations.
References: Amnesty International USA online information on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (see their website)
http://state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/af/135940.htm
http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr30/en/index.html