I was reading on ‘Gender and Development’ and I came across a few articles that drew my attention to gender relations concerning equal opportunities.
At the UN Beijing conference in 1995, gender activists recommended that there should be a minimum 30% threshold requirement for women representation in the Legislature of each member country.
Ghana, a member of the United Nations and one of the key leaders in West African development, currently has a gender representation of 36 women out of a total of 275 seats in parliament. In some of the sources provided, you may see 37 women instead of the 36, this is because the 37th woman was the Electoral commissioner who lost her office due to some legal issues, thereby reducing the count to 36 females in parliament. The 36 women represent 12.75% of the legislature, which is clearly short of the recommended 30%.
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| The ladders of inequality |
Ghana as a nation had its independence in the year 1957 and in its first parliament of the fourth republic in 1993, had 16 female members out of the 200 parliamentary seats. Despite the relative increase, it is noticeable that there is a very meager and slow improvement in women representation in the political front over the past 27 years in the acceptance of women into parliament.
From the article I read, I realized that the progression of women’s entry into parliament was slow and the wave of development is a very gradual one that does not reflect the country’s true projection of support for equal rights and opportunities movement. Ghana is making an attempt to achieve the promotion of Gender Equality and women’s empowerment the third goal set out by the Millenium Developmental Goal (MDG). Not dismissing the fact that Ghana is patriarchy and leveling the playing field would be difficult.
Ghana located in West Africa has a population of women at 51% of its total population. Regardless of this population, the participation of women at all levels is very low despite the structures of women affirmative action that have been put in place. The reason for the introduction of affirmative action is to open up to women the platform that would have otherwise been closed to them solely because of their gender.
Young (1997) states that the gender and development approach is not necessarily concentrated on women but on the relationships between men and women. Whether relationships are ascribed or achieved, men and women's actions have both direct and indirect impacts on one another. In other words, either a man or a woman will be at the opportunity or resource distributing end, and relationships between them will determine how resources and/or opportunities are awarded.
The key question in light of the above statistics, asks whether the same resources and opportunities are being made available by the state to both men and women alike under the same conditions.
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| The goal for equal opportunity for all |
References:
Young, Kate. 1997 [1992]. “Gender and Development.” Pp. 51-54 in The Women, Gender, and Development Reader edited by Nalini Visvanathan, Lynn Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff, and Nan Wiegersma. London: Zed Press.
https://www.iknowpolitics.org/en/news/world-news/more-women-elected-ghanas-parliament
Your observations about women's representation in politics and governance is valid. Women face numerous challenges in their daily lives due to the unequal structures in our patriarchal society. Even when governments put mechanisms in place to ensure women’s participation (which often remains on paper than in practice), support from society is often less. Gender inequality within families resulting from an unequal distribution of labor within the home, and the general cultural attitude towards women, especially in the Global South, subjugate and limit their representation in public life (Shames, 2013).
ReplyDeleteOften, the few women who gather the courage to run for public offices lack support to fund their campaigns. This development stems from unequal pay scales where men are continuously paid more than women for the same job. Again, with the social and business interactions proceeding along gender lines, women are less likely to belong to networks willing to invest funds into their campaigns (Masad, 2020; Shames, 2013).
As if that is not enough, their private lives become the subject of public scrutiny and male stigma. For instance, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, an astute politician and educationist, became a subject of public ridicule when she was nominated to be the running mate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 elections. People forgot all about her achievements and attacked her private life. Her divorce became news as people questioned how a woman who could not keep her marriage could be trusted with managing a whole country. Shames (2013) maintains that political discourse and electoral campaigns have become abusive and uncivil, affecting women most. This development mostly discourage women from venturing into politics.
Women who successfully go through elections to become parliamentarians are given ‘soft ministerial positions’ in such sectors as education and health, while critical ones like the finance ministry are reserved for men
References
Shames, S. (2013). Barriers and solutions to increasing women’s political power. Discussion Draft, 13.
Masad, R. (2020). The struggle for women in politics continues. United Nations Development Programme https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/blog/2020/the-struggle-for-women-in-politics-continues.html
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ReplyDeleteVanessa, Thank you for your thoughtful post. It seems as if in Ghana the cultural attitudes towards women's participation in governmental roles, inclusive of their representation in parliament, are not as rapid to shift as the legislation. Though women are allowed and recommended to occupy congress at a percentage of thirty, I wonder why this statistic was used as the goal if women account for 51% of the population?
ReplyDeleteGreat insight about women and equality. The statistics you gave about women representation was confusing, you stated 36 as the total representation of women in parliament and the 37th person was an electoral commissioner. I am curious in knowing this, is it only the electoral commissioner who has a leading role as a female in Ghana? or the electoral commissioner had a role to play in parliament?
ReplyDeleteHowever, reading this blog post reminds me of the current candidate for vice presidency in Ghana. Because of her sex, there has been lots of propaganda levelled against her. This shows the negative cultural attitude towards women participation in politics.
Unknown -Aishat
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