Ghana: Time to Re-Think Women Political Participation in Ghana

The joy that accompanied the positive signs of greater women participation in the early days of the Mills Presidency has been short-lived as the nomination of women to ministerial positions came to a halt.

The Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament was the first woman appointed by the Mills-led administration, followed by the announcement of others such as the Betty-Mould Iddrisu, Hannah Tetteh, Hanny-Sherry Ayitey Zita Okaikwei, Ama Benyiwa Doe, Akua Sena Danso and Juliana Azumah Mensah.

These appointments of women to ministerial positions fall far below the 30 percent representation promised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The least said about the appointment of women as District, Municipal or Metropolitan Chief Executives, the better.

The Mills-led government should eat the humble pie and apologise for reneging on its words during its 'promise spree' in the December 2008 Elections. The NDC's manifesto explicitly commits to an affirmative action policy. Now that the party is in power, it should be acting it.

"Early days yet," they say, but the level of women political participation is one thing that cannot be ignored in these times.

But give the devil his due; there has been some increase in the number of women appointed as Ministers as compared to the immediate past government. Six out of every 25 of President Mills' ministers (24 percent) are women.

This is an improvement on Ex-president Kufuor's second term which had four out of every 25 (16 percent) of substantive Ministers of States to be women. Though this is positive, it is still not a near-equitable representation of women.

In a country, with a women population of about 51 percent, the involvement in development issues and political leadership should be the concern of all. It should not be a promise to be made by successive politicians on their platforms and left to fly with the wind afterwards.

Concerning the Legislature, the number of women in Ghana's Parliament, at this time when we have the first ever woman Speaker of Parliament sets tongues wagging. There has been about a 2.2 percent drop in the women in the House.

While women occupied 25 out of 230 seats (10.9 percent) in 2004, only 20 out of 230 (9.7 percent) members of the House are women. The real nut to crack is, "Have Ghanaians become more averse to women in politics that they so decide not to vote for them?"

Whether women were simply not voted for or political parties did not make many more women contest on the parties? tickets, all of us should be worried. It is a truism that women historically have contributed enormously to our politics. Sadly enough, they have always been in obscurity.

It is very true that being a woman is not enough reason to be appointed into political authority or to be voted for. The political scene in the country clearly indicates that is not in the interest of any woman to have risen to a position because she is a woman. But it is equally not in any society's interest not to balance the scales to make it possible for the social economic and political inclusion of persons of either sex. Time is rife for a policy, backed by action, to iron out the gender imbalance.

It is when female inclusion in political leadership is seen as a token of gratitude to women that we begin to see 'weak women' ascend to places of leadership. It is however curious that the few unimpressive women leaders become the talk of almost everyone though there are lots of equally (or more) incompetent men around.

The sharp criticisms faced by 'the woman' smacks of the well-ingrained male dominance, patriarchal tendencies in our society. Such tongue lashing will better fit some of the acclaimed male political leaders than the 'weak females'.

The notion that the mere existence of gender affirmative action programmes can potentially raise questions about the ability of women in high positions or political offices should, perhaps, be re-looked at and discarded. Should society not move on from the neolithic practice of ascribing positions to people based on sex or gender?

It makes very interesting observing that we haven't been able to come to the place where a person's ability ceases to be questioned on the grounds that she is a woman.

The low number of women in Ghana's political leadership as seen in the Executive, Legislative and Local Government administrations should not be seen as isolated. It is a manifestation of a bigger problem - a serious structural imbalance in the economy which never seems to favour women or females for that matter. The only area where women are often 'favoured' is, ironically in the unpaid labour force - the home.

Though unjustifiable, it is often argued that women have significant care responsibilities and will not be able to live up to with the responsibilities and requirements of "top positions." What then happens to the countless single mothers who are able to combine the ardours tasks of being mothers, fathers, and economic heads of their families?

In such instances, society, without much difficulty sees women as capable of doing it all. But when it concerns the responsibilities in the high echelons, everyone suddenly wakes up and realises that women will not be able to do all of these. What do we call this, double standards of what?

When inequality, is traceable to structural imbalances and cultural nuances, it does not take a laissez-faire response to restore such imbalance. This is no tokenism. To give women their due does not in any way mean doing them favours. It is only an admission that many women are unfairly treated.

By looking out of the window, one can be sure of corroborating what some studies in the United States found out. According to the March 1995 report of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, a large proportion of minorities and women are locked into low-wage, low-prestige, and dead-end jobs. The situation in Ghana is definitely not any better.

What did Apartheid South Africa do when the issue of racial discrimination and unequal privileges by Blacks and Whites came to the fore? The country consciously embarked on an affirmative action programme. This is what we should be doing as a country and not just how many women are voted into political office.

Will we, as a nation, have attained gender equality or women empowerment, anyway, if the NDC had fulfilled its promise of ensuring 30 percent women participation? It is good to talk about appointments but that does not answer it all.

Real empowerment starts from the bottom. Instead of appointing a few 'self-made' women to places of authority and talking about having achieved gender equality or empowerment, there is a good reason why the bigger picture should be looked at.

Drawing from the South African and American examples, equal access to education by both sexes needs a more-than-serious attitude. This is how others have ensured greater inclusion for a lot more people.

The excuse that is often proffered is that there aren't enough qualified women for such positions. Such an excuse is in itself an indication of the failure of society and political leadership. Female education should not be just a jargon.

The Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) and other statistics have consistently shown that the relative proportion of females is school decreases during each stage of the education. This, maybe, explains the claims by politicians that there aren't enough qualified women - I however believe there are many more qualified women.

Education helps to explain and obtain equal opportunities for all members of our society. Addressing the progressive decline in female right of entry to education will, in the long run, culminate in a more impressive female political participation.

Even in the United States, Affirmative action remains controversial. But the controversy centres on disagreement about the best way to fight discrimination in the present and to make amends for past discrimination.

As a nation, we must be considering what should go into a women affirmative action programme instead of being caught up in the debate of whether it is right or wrong. At least, no right meaning Ghanaian will disagree that women deserve the best too.

The writer is an M.A. student at the School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana.