Women’s Emancipation in the Western Grasslands of Cameroon, 1975-2010: Inculcating International Conventions

Every 8 March is celebrated in Cameroon as the International Women’s day in a bid to galvanise and continue to create awareness, on the strides made by women in so far as women emancipation is concerned worldwide. All these stemmed from without and within as it were international and national obligation to ensure that women should not still be relegated behind in matters of development. Ever since this wave of thought began in the 1940s with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and beyond the women of the Western Grasslands of Cameroon have come a long way but were still to reach their destination as far as full emancipation was concerned. What were the obstacles? Through observatory and statutory data, and manifestations, gender equality was still far-fetched when it came to customary tenets of ethnic groups found in this region. However, International Conferences, National and Non-Governmental Organisations have played greater roles in enhancing the emancipation of women in various domains as examined by this paper in the Western Grasslands of Cameroon. Hence government should come up with more mechanisms with which more enforcement of international and national laws should be upheld to the fullest. Keywords— Western Grasslands, Women Emancipation, Customary laws.