Women Not Adequately Represented in Decision-Making Bodies

November 17, 2004 - (Ghanaian Chronicle - Accra) The Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana has the same number of women representatives as it did in the mid-1960s. There are 19 women in the 200-member parliament, representing less than 10% of the governing body.

In the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the United Nations indicated that women's representation must be 30% in order to be a meaningful part of the decision-making process.

Despite being one of the first countries to sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Ghana lags behind several other African nations and the rest of the world in regards to the role of women in government.

Students, gender advocacy organizations, and representatives of some of the political parties themselves, say that women must play a larger role in the government and other decision-making bodies in order to further the nation's development.

"If society is to harness our potential and sustain development, nobody must be debarred of what is their rightful entitlement," says Frances Asiam, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Women's Organizer.

Factors like gender discrimination, traditional prejudices, beliefs and perceptions, as well as low literacy rates, have contributed to the low level of participation in the policy-making process among women.

Hamida Harrison, a Senior Training Officer at ABANTU for Development, a non-governmental gender-oriented African organization that interrogates policies and how they affect gender issues, says women are not represented in political parties because of the lack of a democratic culture in the parties. "Political parties themselves, they have found a convenient way of putting women somewhere by the creation of women's wings," she says. To help promote a greater presence for women in government and other decision-making bodies, ABANTU, in collaboration with civil society groups, District Assemblies, political parties, the media and individuals, has produced a Women's Manifesto. The manifesto represents the concerns and aspirations of women, and provides recommendations on how key issues affecting women can be tackled. ABANTU is trying to get Ghana's political parties to incorporate the Women's Manifesto into their own manifestos.

The manifesto calls for economic and social rights to be provided to men and women on an equal basis. It also states that by 2010, the government must review all of Ghana's laws to ensure conformity with the 1992 Constitution and International Human Rights obligations.

Laws concerning marriage and property rights must also be implemented, as well as reforms of the social security system to expand coverage so all citizens are protected. This would include medical care, maternity and unemployment benefits. The manifesto also calls on the government to implement a legally enforceable affirmative action policy by 2008, to integrate women in all sphere of public life.

Ms. Harrison says that many countries have successfully used affirmative action to promote the status of women.

She suggests that it should be used here to get women out of their shells and participate in politics.

However, not everyone agrees that this is the best strategy for women to achieve true equality.

Kwadwo Afari, Press Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, thinks that women seeking political offices should not be given preferential treatment or pushed into key positions through affirmative action policies. He thinks that powerful women will struggle and climb the political ladder on their own volition just as men have.

"If the woman is not qualified and you put her there because she is a woman, you are not arming the woman with anything, you are harming the whole society," Mr. Afari says.

Some women such as Juliana Mireku, a level-100 Political Science student at the University of Ghana, Legon, agree. "I don't think they (women) should be given special treatment," she says. "If she has the qualifications, you help her."

Ms. Mireku does admit that Ghanaian society traditionally keeps women out of the decision-making process. "Women are pushed into the background, the kitchen, the bedroom, but now we can do better," she says.

Ms. Asiam thinks that intervention is needed to help women enhance their various trades, since 70% of women are poor, but they do as much as 75% of the world's work.

Some people point to the traditional roles of women to support the case for female empowerment and a greater role in governance.

Ms. Harrison and others think that women should be in decision-making positions because they are more permanent in their communities than men are.

She says women more frequently stay with their children, while men may be forced to move to find work.

She says that the main aim of the District Assembly system was to bring the government to the doorstep of the people. But in 2002, only 341 of 4583 elected district assembly members, or 7%, were women. Nine women hold ministerial and deputy ministerial positions, compared to 68 men. In the Council of State, which advises the president, 16% of the members are female.
At the local level, many consider women to be better suited to look out for the concerns of children, the family, the community and the environment.

Specifically, they can address issues like girl child education, child labour, rape, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and domestic violence. Ms. Asiam says that these issues are not on the developmental agenda, because women are not part of decision-making bodies.

In addition to supporting affirmative action policies for women, she thinks institutions that make policy decisions must change. "All strategies are not geared at structure transformation," she says. "Real change is not happening, like in other developing countries." While
Ghana was the first country to attain independence south of the Sahara, many people think it has failed to be a trailblazer as far as women in politics is concerned. In Rwanda, a country that recently emerged from war, 48% of the parliament is women. Another progressive example is Gambia, which has a female Vice-President.

Ghana's political parties continue to face criticism for missing opportunities to increase the number of women in parliament. In the Volta Region, traditionally an NDC stronghold, Ms. Asiam thinks her party could have used these safe seats to field more women as parliamentary candidates. Some women were even prevented by their constituency members from contesting the primaries.

This was the case in Kintampo North, in the Brong-Ahafo Region, where despite satisfying all the requirements, a woman could contest the NDC primary. When Ms. Asiam and her colleagues intervened, their cars were nearly vandalized.

ABANTU compiled a report titled Positioning Women and their Concerns in Governance Processes, where District Assemblywomen discussed their political experiences.

They detailed other incidences of harassment, false allegations, insults from male counterparts, and other forms of intimidation.

These types of problems are not limited to the local level, as women have also been known to undergo harassment in parliament.

Ms. Harrison says that asking a woman her marital status or whether she has children is irrelevant to her ability to do a job.

However, when women are being scrutinized for ministerial positions, these questions continue to arise.

Ms Harrison thinks that the way women are socialized in is a major factor in their political participation. "That is how we were brought up," she says. "Nurses and teachers are expected to be women. It is society that defines those roles." She suggests that nothing less of a complete overhaul of attitudes of how society views women will balance power relations.

Women are also considered the primary source of advice in many communities, despite being denied traditional leadership roles. "They look at women like mothers, people who care," says Ms. Asiam. However, Queen Mothers, the tradition women leaders, continue to be excluded from traditional governance bodies. They are denied access to the National and Regional House of Chiefs, as well as Traditional ad Regional Councils, in violation of national and international law.

Another problem associated with this imbalance of power, is that these traditional bodies establish customary laws, which are often considered discriminatory. Inheritance claims, women's health, marital rape and abuse are some examples that may not be given adequate attention.

Critics point to the slow and ineffective implementation of laws that have been passed to address the human rights of women.

Without women at the forefront of policy-making bodies, women will have difficulty pushing gender initiatives that have been ignored.

ABANTU estimates that the average female representation in policy-making structures is around 11.5% in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ghana has not seen any significant increase in women's participation in district assemblies between 1998 and 2002, or in parliament since independence.

Some people suggest that women may be more responsible with public money, making them ideal for ministerial roles in Finance or Energy.

But when asked if she expects a female vice-presidential candidate in the near future, Ms. Asiam says, "Not in Ghana," only if a woman forms a political party. However, she does see progress. "Sooner or later it will become an accepted norm that women are coming up to the higher levels of power," she says. "Changing the mindset and the attitude is the biggest task ahead of us."

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200411170371.html