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The outcome of Ghana’s 2008 elections was not in favour of women despite years of continuous public education by many Non-Governmental Organizations and women groups across the country. She expressed sentiment about how women are perceived to be weak and incapable of fulfilling the demands of the positions they hold. This she said contributed to the drop of the number female parliamentarians from 25 to 20.
The Deputy Minister of the Ashanti region, Hon. Anima Wilson said this at a two day media sensitization workshop organized by the Women, Media and Change (WOMEC) in collaboration with ABANTU for Development and supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Kumasi.
She said, women constitute more than half of Ghana’s population but power and influence in decision making for economic development have always been exercised by and in favour of men. “There is still the need to make known some of the challenges facing women in their quest to go into politics”. Many barriers including discriminatory practices against women and lack of resources hamper their ability to participate actively in processes of decision making” she said. Mrs. Bedu –Addo, a gender consultant, on her part stated that affirmative action was a legitimate tool to correct the structural defects of the Ghanaian society with the aim of ensuring fair representation and promoting women’s political participation. According to her, the issue of broadening the scope of women’s active participation in politics still remains critical because of some informal dynamics of the electoral processes, multiple responsibilities of women, their educational levels and burden on their time among others. She appealed to the media to create general awareness among Ghanaians on the need to promote female participation in Ghana’s democracy. The Acting Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Nana Yaw Osei said a critical assessment of the media coverage of women in politics for the 2008 elections revealed an abysmal performance, especially in the state-owned Daily Graphic newspaper. He disclosed that out of 263 political stories carried by Daily Graphic from October to November 2008, prior to the election, only 26 were on women, indicating that there was no coverage for 30 days for women in politics during the period under review. Daily Guide newspaper however did better than daily Graphic with 51 out of 401 political stories carried in October and November, whiles The Chronicle newspaper carried 48 stories on women out of 329 political stories. Mrs., Ruby Arthur, who was the facilitator for the workshop indicated that the developmental goal of the project was to improve women’s participation in the political, social, and economic sectors of the country by offering greater visibility and support to women in diverse leadership positions in Ghana. |
