Giving our female candidates the needed push

Beginning with this issue, The Mirror, under its Election 2016 project, will feature all the female parliamentary candidates as its contribution to pushing the agenda to get more women in the governance structure forward.

Dubbed, ‘Know your female candidates’, The Mirror has for starters profiled four out of the about 60 female candidates, in order to project them. It is also to help readers make informed decisions on the selection of legislators, particularly the females seeking to represent their constituencies, come November 7, 2016 polls.

The four are: Maame Efua Sekyi-Aidoo, National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate for Trobu Constituency in the Greater Accra Region; Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo, NDC, Hohoe, Volta Region; Ms Diamond Nannah Appiah, United Progressive Party (UPP), Trobu, Greater Accra and Mrs Angela Alorwu-Tay, NDC, Afadjato South ,Volta Region.

Indeed many attempts have been made to get more women up there but it looks like we still have a long way to get there. As the adage goes; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. We, however, must say that the journey towards increased women representation has been too slow.

The situation also underscores the need for us to implement and adopt measures to quicken the pace because to have just 10.5 per cent of women representing 51.4 per cent of the female population is woefully inadequate and certainly not the best.

It seems that besides Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s policy of affirmative action which saw 10 women in the 104-member parliament of the First Republic, successsive governments have not done much to improve women’s rights in the political decision-making process, while most of the gestures made by the political parties towards this end have also been largely ceremonial and not as progressive as expected.

 The recent attempt by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to push for more female candidates and the subsequent U-turn readily comes to mind.

We are not saying women must be spoon-fed but judging from the way politicking is done in the country, The Mirror believes that the strategy to, at least, present women in those ‘safe constituencies’ needs to be revisited if we are not to pay lip service to the cliché of getting more women to the top.

According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census Report (Ghana Statistical Service Report, July, 2013) women constitute the majority of the population (about 51 per cent). There is therefore, no gainsaying the fact that women stand the chance of contributing a lot to the nation’s quest for growth and development when given the opportunity to contribute their quota.

As a state-owned medium with the mandate to promote healthy family life, The Mirror believes that considering the unique and pivotal roles women play within the family, community and society at large as mothers and caregivers, it stands to reason that we all stand to benefit when they are supported to reach their full potential.

Indeed, there is a lot that women can do to create the environment for democracy to be entrenched and transparency and accountability in public life made part and parcel of our national culture and values.

Certainly, Ghana cannot continue to put women and women’s issues on the back burner. It’s about time women left the back burner and made their contributions and impact felt more in governance at all levels.

Indeed, women must not see themselves as playing second fiddle to men but rather as people who could do all the things that they set themselves to do. Let’s therefore put partisan interests aside and give them the necessary push.