‘Armchair’ feminism doesn’t achieve results – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has launched an attack on women advocates and feminists who have recently criticized the president for his comments on women dynamism and empowerment at the just ended Women Deliver Conference in Vancouver, Canada.

According to her, most women activists and feminists are only good at criticizing on social media when things go wrong but never “get their feet dirty” to achieve the changes they’re looking for.

“As for the ‘armchair’ feminism it doesn’t change anything, it may make for nice sound bites but after the next election if we’re not careful we will still be hovering around 13-15% (of women in parliament) and what would we have achieved? Nothing. It is not the noise that will effect change, we’ve done it all, we’ve done the advocacy but we realized that it was not enough. We need to be out there working side-by-side with our male colleagues to ensure that we encourage more women…”

“...Women activists do not support women in politics, they only criticize when things go wrong.” Mrs Owusu-Ekuful noted.

She says the president in his argument only sought to issue a clarion call to the ‘dead women advocacy’ in the country.

In defense of the president, Mrs Ekuful among other things noted that without a critical mass of women in decision making we can’t effectively make changes. “Ghanaian women ought to compete for political offices and should get encouragement from one another, it is not just talking, it is an action that is needed.”

President Akufo-Addo at the Women Deliver Conference argued that; “We are not seeing enough dynamism and activism on the part of those who are seeking. I am talking about dynamism where it matters…electing people to Parliament, controlling political parties because they are the instruments by which our societies make decisions.

“We are talking about decisions, not wishes and hopes, we are talking about decisions that are going to make the difference,” the president added.

The president who has been branded gender champion in Africa has been vilified by women empowerment activists and feminists in the country thereafter.

But the Communications Minister has urged Ghanaians, particularly women advocates and feminists to be rather thankful to the president for his courage in making such bold statements about women dynamism and empowerment.