Women’s empowerment needs commitment

Article: Salome Donkor
THE first world conference on the status of women was held in Mexico City to coincide with the 1975 International Women's Year, to remind the international community that discrimination against women continued to be a persistent problem in most parts of the world.
The conference led to the declaration of the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), proclaimed by the General Assembly which launched a new era in global efforts to promote the advancement of women by opening a world-wide dialogue on gender equality.
A process was set in motion to involve deliberation, negotiation, setting objectives, identifying obstacles and reviewing the progress made.
Despite these efforts, many women around the world continue to suffer discrimination and challenges posed by social attitudes and policies that continue to condone and perpetuate violence against women and girls.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides a framework for equality of all persons and outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender/sex. It promises to protect and promote all human rights and also prohibits all harmful customary practices.
However the Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for gender equity, which made an assessment on issues of concern to women in Africa in 2008, has established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevailed in Africa while increasing efforts are being made to address them.
Making a statement in Parliament to mark this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8, on the theme “Women and Men united to end violence against women and girls” the Member of Parliament (MP) for Twifo Ati Mokwa, Mrs Elizabeth Amoah-Tetteh, observed that women empowerment continued to be a central feature of the United Nation’s efforts to address socio-economic and political challenges confronting women across the world.
To add her voice to calls on the need to get more women involved in politics and decision-making, an American philanthropist, writer and gender activist, DR Swanee Hunt has urged Ghanaian women to be firm and resolute in the use of their imaginative, and visionary qualities to promote the interest of women and other vulnerable groups in the society.
She described Ghanaian women as energetic people with strong, imaginative and visionary qualities which could take them far if they received the neccessary support to develop their capabilities.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a meeting with 30 Ghanaian women, made up of parliamentarians, lawyers and representatives from non-governmental organisations, during a three-day visit to the country recently, she said Ghanaian women have made giant strides in national development, despite the challenges.
Dr Hunt, who is a Lecturer of Public Policy, is committed to the attainment of gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and other forms of human suffering.
She served as President Clinton's ambassador to Austria, from 1993 to 1997, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia, which focused on stabilising the neighbouring Balkan states. She had also worked extensively in Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and a little in South Africa and Liberia, and notably with the most strong women all over the world.
Ambassador Hunt was the Founding Director of the Women and Public Policy Programme at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she also teaches “Inclusive Security”, exploring why women are systematically excluded from peace processes and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. She has conducted research, training, and consultations with women leaders in some 60 countries.
She pointed out that as a gender advocate and women rights advocate, she decided to visit the country to learn more about the role of women in the country.
She described Rwandan women as strong women who played a crucial role during the ethnic genocide and pointed out that with the Hutsi, Tutsi conflict some key women in Rwanda, namely Inyumba Aloisia and Rose Kabuya, played crucial roles.
Dr Hunt said 14 years after the genocide, Rwanda's constitution adopted after a referendum held in 2003 guaranteed 30 per cent quota of the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, for women.
They also created women councils in villages where they run offices and they got themselves in the constitutional committee with 30 per cent set aside for women who only contested those seats.
That strategy, she said, worked fantastically and after the country’s 2008 elections, the country became the first nation in the world whose legislative assembly had the majority of women when the party of the ruling government headed by President Kagame endorsed 35 female candidates in an inter-party coalition, adding that “if you want to look for a mother for Africa, look from Rwanda”.
She said Ghana lagged behind in the representation of women in governance, explaining that in the US as of the 2008 elections, there are 74 women serving in the current House of Representatives while the Senate had 17 women in 2008.
On the perception that ‘politics is a dirty game’, she said it would continue to be so until women got actively involved and indicated that like other countries, women in the US would be prodded many times before they will decide about politics.
She said such women should believe in women’s rights and concerns.
She advised women not to think that they do not have the capabilities and were not qualified to contest elections and advised women to look at the EMILY's List that helped to elect progressive female candidates who were pro-choice to office.
EMILY's List, which is an acronym for "Early Money Is Like Yeast," is a political action committee (PAC) in the United States, founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1984. From the common political saying that, "Early money is like yeast, because it helps to raise the dough", the concept encourages women who want to enter into politics to start mobilising funds early.
Dr Hunt advised Ghanaian women, who want to contest in elections at both the district assembly and national level to take the decision now by starting to organise immediately, so that they can contest the elections and win.
In another interview, Mrs Gifty Klenam, the Member of Parliament for Lower West Akyem, who was at the meeting with Dr Hunt, described it as fruitful and said it provided a congenial atmosphere for deliberations on women in politics, trafficking and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSC Resolution 1325), relating to women, peace and security.
The Resolution, which tasks UN Systems and Member States to ensure that gender considerations are thoroughly integrated into all aspects of its security platform from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, was unanimously adopted by the Security Council in October 2000.
She said they deliberated on the negative effects of child trafficking in the country and the need to assess causes of child trafficking in order to come out with workable solutions to the problem.
She also said the meeting deliberated on the need for gender advocates to also contest in elections after doing their advocacy work to serve as an inspiration to women.