Women deserve more

When the pioneer Ghanaian educationist, Dr Kwegyir Aggrey, made his famous remark that educating a woman meant educating a whole nation, he had every justification for saying that, for the role that women play in society has generally been accepted as crucial for the wellbeing of mankind.

In spite of this, not much attention has been paid to issues affecting women, with the result that conscious effort has had to be made to bring the situation to an acceptable level.  

It was for this reason that between the second half of 2003 and early 2004, a number of women from different persuasions held a series of meetings to deliberate on the situation of women in Ghana. 

They discussed issues ranging from the economy of Ghana, global conflicts, poverty, health, maternal and infant mortality to those regarding the monopoly of decision making in the country, and rededicated themselves to the fight for a society with gender equality and equity.

These meetings culminated in the adoption of the non-partisan Women’s Manifesto for Ghana, which contains the concerns of women about the insufficient attention given to critical issues about them. The manifesto, born out of strenous efforts by ABANTU For Development, sought to ensure fairness for women in many aspects of national life, including elimination of discriminatory cultural practices, politics and decision-making, land, economic empowerment and the media.

We congratulate the brains behind the manifesto as they celebrate their 10th anniversary on the theme: “Enhancing women’s voices in policy spaces”. 

It has been 10 years since the adoption of the manifesto, and many are the views that have been expressed on what it has been able to achieve. 

In our opinion, in spite of the laudable idea behind the manifesto, and the successes that have been chalked up, a lot more needs to be done through further education on the existence of the manifesto and what it seeks to achieve.

Evidence abounds at the grass roots, in business and other aspects of national life, that many who have been introduced to the provisions of the manifesto have been encouraged to go into areas that had hitherto been considered no-go areas for women.

Although many women appear to have been encouraged to contest district-level elections, not many of them have participated in politics at the national level, beyond the adoption of the manifesto. We, therefore, encourage women and women’s organisations to step up their campaigns to educate the public, both men and women, on the need to empower women to go into ventures seen as the preserve of men.

The Daily Graphic believes that there is still more to be done to ensure that the concerns expressed in the manifesto about the under-representation of women in politics, policy and decision making in public life, for instance, is fully met. Mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure that more women participate in public affairs.

We are hopeful that by the time the women groups meet to mark another 10 years, they and all of us will have good reasons to say that we have fully achieved what the manifesto set out to do when it was adopted in 2004.