Ayekoo to all women

Saturday, March 8, 2008 (The Mirror Pg 32)

By Rebecca Kwei
Today, March 8, marks International Women’s Day (IWD), a very special day to celebrate women and their social, economic and political achievements.
The idea of an IWD first came up at the beginning of the 1900s in America and Europe when women in many countries neither had the vote nor the right to join a union.
Now IWD has grown to become a global day of recognition celebrated world-wide by women’s groups and governments. This year’s global theme is, “Shaping Progress”, while the local theme is,
The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, in collaboration with a some NGOs, will organise various activities to mark the day.
Over the years, significant strides have been made in the social, economic, political and health status of women in Ghana.
The establishment of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs was a boost for women, since there is now an institution to deal with women’s welfare.
The Domestic Violence Law marked another milestone in the country’s commitment to the rights of women. There are ongoing processes to put in place policies and programmes and legal frameworks to protect women and children from sexual exploitation and abuse, harmful cultural practices, trafficking and property rights.
Most women are breadwinners of their families and certain social protection measures, such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme, mass transportation, free bus ride for schoolchildren and micro-credit for women and people with disabilities (PWDs), have, in a way, bettered their situation. Hopefully, the soon-to-be-introduced Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme which involves direct cash transfers to categories of poor people will assist poor women to take care of their families, as well as help them to venture into areas that will bring them sustainable incomes.
The contribution of women to the country’s economy has been tremendous. Most Ghanaian women work in the informal sector. It is estimated that women make up about 85 per cent of the wholesale and retail trading business and form about two-thirds of the working population in the manufacturing sector.
Despite challenges such as access to land, non accessibility to credit facilities (especially at reasonable interest rate) and the perception that women’s businesses should not be as large or successful as that of men, hundreds of women have braved the odds and predominate from small-scale businesses to big enterprises, recording sterling performances.
Maternal mortality, sad to note, is still an issue. The World Health Organisation says 740 women die out of every 100,000 live births. It is important to tackle maternal health seriously, since the maternal mortality rate of a country is an international indicator for measuring the quality of health.
The number of female parliamentarians has increased steadily. In the first Parliament of the Fourth Republic, 16 women were elected as MPs, while in 1996 18 out of the 53 women contestants were elected. In 2000, 19 out of the 95 female contestants were elected, while in 2004, 25 out of the 104 contestants were elected. Also worthy of mention is that now there are more female ministers, deputy ministers, chief directors and members of boards than in the past.
Ghanaian women are blazing the trail in all spheres of life. A few are Mrs Akua Kuenyehia, the first Vice-President of the International Criminal Court; Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, the first female Chief Justice; Mrs Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Liberia for the Rule of Law; Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London; Ms Elizabeth Adjei, the Director of the Ghana Immigration Service; Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police; Ms Anna Bossman, the acting Chairperson of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice; Mrs Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie, a member of the Council of State; Mrs Elizabeth Villars, the MD of Camelot Ghana Limited, and Mrs Cecilia Kwofie, Executive Director, DOMOD Aluminium Limited.
This year being an election year, one issue that has engaged the attention of many gender activists is that political parties should choose women as running mates.
They maintain that that will be a big step towards improving the status of women.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, who people are championing to be selected as the running mate to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flag bearer, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said that Ghana was ready for a woman President.
She argued that after 50 years of independence, Ghana was ready to have competent women occupy non-traditional, high-level positions, including the presidency.
“The men say they understand our problems but they cannot because only women understand women’s issues,” she stated.
As we celebrate women today, it is important for the government to re-commit itself to addressing the social, health, economic and political issues that serve as barriers to the advancement of women.
It is also important to initiate programmes and policies for more women to get into the decision-making process so that women’s specific interests are taken into account when important decisions are being made.