A REVOLUTION can be noisy, violent and bloody. It can also be silent, peaceful and bloodless. Whatever form it takes, one thing is certain: a revolution brings about conspicuous change in the social, political and economic existence of an average society. The rise of women to positions of authority and power globally seems to be abundant; but is it a revolution? Can we say without fear of successful contradiction that the pink revolution is upon us? Emma Goodson once remarked, ‘If I can’t dance to it, it’s not revolution.’

Hanna Rosin, in her book, ‘The End of Men: And the Rise of Women’, argued that patriarchy is coming to an end. Far from the truth. Women have made substantial gains globally in the consequential field of education. Women now outperform men academically at all levels of education. Upon the completion of the United States mid-term elections 2018, statistics revealed 20 women were on the Senate ballot and almost 200 candidates contested the House elections.

A record 100 women will now become Congresswomen, including Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and IIhan Oman (Minnesota) who now enjoy the distinction of being the first Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress. Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar have become the first Latino women to represent the great state of Texas in the U.S. Congress. Most importantly, this pink wave was driven by grassroots activism conducted by women.

This is an extraordinary development, especially in light of the fact that we live in a world where women gained the right to vote only in the 1950s. This encouraging appearance in the world’s great exemplar of democracy is quite encouraging. Added to this, a most notable maternal ascendancy has occurred in East Africa. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the leader of a highly patriarchal society, has made half of his Cabinet female.

Let us not get excited, despite the above-mentioned extraordinary facts, we are decades away from a genuine pink revolution. There are only 10 women heads of government in the world: this represents a mere 6.3% of the total number of world leaders. Women hold 5.0% CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies, despite making up 58% of the workforce of the United States, which has a population of 300 million.

In places such as the UK, government statistics revealed that 74% of firms pay higher rates to their male staff. We can go on and on with the data, which invariably reveals that when we see on television and popular news, as it relates to the ascent of women, might just be a mirage.

Taboos and cultures remain rigidly in full support of male domination. It is still an uneven man’s world, but it is good to see leaders such as Ethiopia’s prime minister heeding the caution of John F. Kennedy, ‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable.’