Celebrating women; but affirmative action lags

Rebecca Quaicoe Duho Mar - 05 - 2020 , 11:26 4 minutes read

Sixty-three years after independence, women continue to play significant roles in diverse spheres of the country’s development.

Economically, women own businesses both in the formal and informal sectors.

Their contribution in keeping the homes and for that matter ensuring proper upbringing of children can also not be quantified.

Notable among such women is Esther Ocloo of Nkulenu fame of blessed memory.

A lot of other women are also in the agricultural sector where they are into farming, processing and retailing of farm produce.

Socially, a lot of women have become icons such as the late Theodocia Okoh, accredited for designing the Ghana flag, Ama Ata Aidoo, an author, poet, playwright and academician, Efua Theodora Sutherland, a playwright, director, dramatist, children's author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist and Mrs Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie, former president of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).

Women in decision making

Quite a number of women have also broken the glass ceiling to climb the political ladder to become decision-makers in the country.

Some of these women are former Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo and current Chief of Staff, Mrs Akosua Frema Osei Opare and many more.

However, the story of Ghana’s independence cannot be said to be complete without ensuring that women were truely independent in the country.

Challenges/Affirmative Action

A lot of women continue to find it increasingly difficult to compete with their male counterparts in all fronts of the country’s development, most especially in the area of women decision making positions in the country.

Three years after independence in 1957, Ghana had a direction on Affirmative Action to ensure that women participated fully in the decision-making processes of the country by allowing 10 women to compete in an all-female contest to the 114 Parliament of the First Republic.

This became possible when Dr Kwame Nkrumah introduced the Representation of People’s Amendment Bill after he realised that the country’s Parliament was made up of only men.

The women included Mrs Lucy Anin, Ms Comfort Asamoah, Ms Mary Koranteng and Mrs Sussan Alhassan.

However, 60 years down the lane, the country still does not have a law on Affirmative Action.

With only 37 women representing 13.7 per cent of the 275-member Parliament, the country is said to be lagging behind most other African states.

Affirmative Action Bill Coalition

To remedy the situation, an Affirmative Action Bill, which assesses the barriers to women’s political representation in the country, gives recommendations on how the issue might be addressed is currently “struggling” to be passed into law.

To ensure that the bill is passed into law this year, without it elapsing as it had in previous years, gender activists across the country have come together to form the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition.

According to the Convenor of the Coalition, Mrs Sheila Minkah-Premo, “one of the spaces women face inequality in Ghana is in national decision making”.

That, she says, was evident in the representation of women at various levels of national leadership, including governance, political party leadership among others.

“Ghana is often portrayed as a model for democracy in West Africa and beyond, however, the country lags behind other African countries in terms of the gendered aspects of governance,” she added.

International Women’s Day 2020

As the country celebrates its independence day tomorrow, Friday, March 6, women the world over will also be celebrated two days later on Sunday, March 8.

This year, the theme for the International Women’s Day (IWD) is #EachforEqual and Ghana’s theme is “Passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into Law: A critical step for gender equality for quality decision-making in Ghana”.

But the big question that the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition is asking is: Does the country have anything to celebrate on the women’s front?

According to the coalition, when the Affirmative Action Bill is passed into law, it would help ensure the achievement of gender equality in political, social, economic and educational spheres in society.

Writer's email-rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh