Accelerate gender parity by 2030
Parliament has marked World Women's Day with a call on women, gender activists and organisations to take pragmatic actions to accelerate gender parity by 2030 and address the problem of negative practices rooted in the Ghanaian culture.
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Contributing to a statement made on the floor by the leader of the Women's Caucus in Parliament, Hajia Mary Salifu Boforo, to mark the day, members acknowledged the contributions made by women towards national development but said there was more to be done to ensure gender equality and empowerment.
World Women's Day is marked on March 8 every year, to celebrate the contributions of women to the socio-economic and political achievements of their nations.
It is also a day for reflection and renewal of commitments towards the achievement of gender parity in all spheres of human endeavour.
The global theme adopted by the United Nations for this year is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step it up for gender equality. "
Ghana has, however, chosen the theme: " Gender equality by 2030: Inclusion of all for Ghana's sustainable development. "
Boforo's statement
Hajia Boforo said the world, and in particular Ghana, had much to celebrate concerning women’s achievements but progress towards achieving gender parity had slowed in many areas.
She said the UN's World Economic Forum, in 2015, predicted that it would take 117 years for global gender parity to be achieved and added that she was concerned by that statement as a woman, mother and legislator.
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"The revelation signals to me that for the next century, women, who constitute more than half of the world's population, may be excluded from the development process.
“Despite this revelation, I still have hope. I believe that achieving gender parity by 2030 declared in Ghana's theme for this year's celebration is possible if every man and woman in this country can pledge to take concrete steps individually and collectively now.
“I, however, admit that attaining this objective is not going to be easy. Challenges rooted in our culture still remain; our young girls are still being forced into early marriages and our women are still battered by their parents and husbands," she said.
Hajia Boforo pointed out that the nation needed to collectively tackle those issues head-on if it was to succeed in keeping the promise of its young girls alive.
SDGs and sociocultural practices
Mrs Boforo said at the heart of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) was the economic empowerment of women and expressed joy that through the social intervention programmes of both past and present governments such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and the Local Enterprise Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), many women were being economically empowered.
While acknowledging the fact that women spent larger proportions of their income on their immediate families, she expressed the hope that before the SGDs deadline, Ghana would have a better society rooted in stronger family systems.
"To sustain these achievements and further empower women, we need to eradicate the sociocultural practices, norms and societal attitudes that discourage women from engaging in wage employment hand in some occupations such as driving, welding and auto mechanics," he said.
Parliamentary elections
Turning the spotlight on this year's Parliamentary elections, Mrs Boforo said it presented yer another critical opportunity to increase the number of women in the august House as the country made efforts to achieve gender parity.
"It is time this country improved upon the 10.9 per cent representation of women in Parliament, " she said.
Contributions
Most of the contributors, namely Mrs Gifty Eugenia Kusi (NPP, Tarkwa Nsuaem); Mrs Laadi Ayii Ayamba (NDC, Pusiga); Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover (NPP, Tema East); Mrs Elizabeth Sackey (NPP, Okaikwei North); Nii Amasa Namoale (NDC, La Dadekotopon) noted, among other things, that the major political parties in Ghana, before they assumed power, promised to increase the participation of women in government but did not fulfil the promise.