Politics is dirty, women must fight for their place - Nana Oye Lithur

Former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur has emphasized the need for a satisfactory involvement of women in politics.

The minister who described politics as “dirty” in her quest to advocate for more women in politics pressed that women must remain steadfast in snatching political positions from men.

She noted that, “we run a political system - the first past the post system. So, it’s all about a winnable candidate because you would ask yourself, if we are that committed to gender equality and to seeing that we have more women in governance, more women in parliament, more women in our district assemblies… when there are primaries, where even women are brave to stand, men will still fight and struggle with them”.

Nana Oye Lithur who was speaking at the maiden edition of the Progressive Organisation for Women's Advancement (POWA) forum at the British Council in Accra, Tuesday October 31 held that “politics is about money, politics is masculine, and the men are not prepared to allow the women to take power.”

She said women who want to take power have to “struggle and arrest the power away from the men”.

The POWA Forum is expected to take place in every quarter of the year as its agenda rides on.

It is a platform designed to engage persons of diverse backgrounds in a series of conversations to facilitate the development of women.

It is uniquely positioned to initiate women’s interest conversations, as a means to generate national attention on gender topical issue discussions by engaging influential, inspirational, innovative and incisive thinkers from across genders, professions and careers.

The Forum will purposely add vital ideas via various voices to advance a gender policy framework in the Country - by engaging a variety of individuals with diverse backgrounds, in discussions on issues that affect Women - so as to constructively change the consciousness of society towards women for the better.