‘Create special opportunities for girls to breakthrough’

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Peace and Love Hospital, Dr (Mrs) Beatrice Wiafe Addai, had asked the government and institutions to create special opportunities for young girls to be able to breakthrough male-dominated societies.

She said senior high schools (SHS) and universities should have special cut-off points for girls, especially those who want to pursue science education.

"This is doable. Other countries have done it to promote girls education and prevent early pregnancy," she said in Kumasi during a mentorship programme for girls to mark this year's International Women's Day.

The year-long celebration is marked on March 8, each year. It was on the theme: "Generation equality: realising women's rights," and was organised by the Women in Technical Education Development of the Kumasi Technical University (WITED KsTU).

Life story

Dr (Mrs) Wiafe Addai, who is also the Chairperson, Breast Care International (BCI), a breast cancer advocacy group, said there were still inequalities between males and females 25 years after the Beijing conference to champion equality.

Using her personal life story to encourage the girls, she said as the sixth of 11 children and the first female, she nearly missed out on becoming a medical doctor but for the intervention of a teacher who later became her patient.

Her father, she said, had consigned her fate to reading and writing letters for him after her GCE Ordinary Level
education until her teacher's intervention.

She said current interventions for girls were not good enough and it was time for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to make deliberate and conscious effort to bridge the gap between males and females.

Technical education

The President of the Women in Technical Education, Dr Patricia Owusu-Darko, said the era of confining women to the arts programmes in schools should be discouraged and help them challenge their male counterparts in the technical education.

She said it should be possible to see more girls than men, for instance, in engineering.

"It may sound and look impossible but with deliberate efforts, this can be achieved," Dr Owusu-Darko said.

Testimonies

There were testimonies from high-profiled professional women who have broken through the glass ceiling including a lawyer, banker and a PhD candidate.