Women urged not to allow challenges to discourage them

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North, Madam Freda Prempeh, has called on women to re-orient their minds and aspire to higher heights.

Many women ,she said, allowed themselves to be discouraged by challenges that confronted them and therefore did not pursue their careers even though they might have the capacity to. 

Madam Prempeh said this in a presentation she made in Accra at a two-day capacity building programme for female parliamentarians from Ghana and Sierra Leone and organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).

Cultural hindrances

She said cultural hindrances, lack of spousal and family support, resources and economic empowerment were some of the challenges women faced, saying that "progress for women, I believe, is progress for humanity. Therefore, all measures for enhanced education, health and improved agriculture, security and employment, especially for young girls who are among the strategic priority group, must be addressed". 

Madam Prempeh, who called for affirmative action as a way forward in increasing women’s representation in decision making and economically viable positions, also said women faced a lot of challenges such as lack of recognition, inadequate resources, lack of education and confidence when they wanted to aspire to higher positions.

She said to create change and push women forward, there was the need to create a more conducive environment that would fully enable them to participate in decision making and development issues.

Equal participation 

"Equal participation of women and men in decision making and leadership at all levels makes the government more democratic. There is the need to remove or eliminate gender stereotypes and unearth the hidden potentials of women through affirmative action, education, capacity building and empowerment

Increased attention must be paid to the connection between a developed and well functioning democracy and the provision of equal opportunities to enable all groups of citizens to participate in the decision-making process,’’ she added.

Governments, she said, should make considerable efforts to incorporate gender issues in their policies, plans and activities or programmes, saying that the reaffirmation of the 1995 Beijing for Action Platform was especially critical in the fight for girls’ rights without which women’s rights cannot be achieved. 

Madam Prempeh called on more women to aspire into politics and appealed to political parties to identify and groom more women into their folds.