Can the International Women's Day Celebration liberate ...

the Ghanaian woman from poverty, oppression and discrimination?

A GNA feature by Prosper Kuorsoh

Wa, March 22, GNA - The International Women's Day is a day set aside globally to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, the present and the future. The celebration of the day, which dates back to 1911, also seeks to hammer on girls' access to educational opportunities and bring to the limelight the political, social and economic injustice that women suffer from at the hands of men.

The oppression of women and unequal representation of women at critical levels of decision making coupled with discrimination perhaps spurred them to become more vocal and active in campaigning for a change in the status quo.

The Celebration of the day this year was on the theme 93Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent jobs work for women".

But, has the idea behind the celebration of the day in Ghana yielded any positive results to serve as a motivation factor for the women to continue to forge ahead with the campaign? According to the Ghana Statistical Service, 2000 Population and Housing Census, there was a tremendous narrowing of the disparity between women and men in terms of adult literacy of age 15 and above where literacy amongst women had moved from 49.4% in 2000 to 58.3% in 2007 as compared to men which moved from 66% to 71.7% respectively. A statement issued and singed by Akua Britwum of Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) stated that there had been significant progress with regards to girls' access to educational opportunities in the country.

The statement noted that gender parity at the primary level stood at 1:1 in some parts of the country.

Despite these, many challenges such as socio-cultural practices, stereotypical attitudes and low-skilled training schemes remained a hindrance to a lot of women and girls from gaining adequate access to education and decent jobs hence their living in abject poverty. On the current state of the low enrollment of girls at schools especially in the area of Science and Technology, Alhaji Issahaku Salia, the Upper West Regional Minister, said the government had started implementing the Mathematics, Science and Technology Scholarship Scheme which is in line with National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy to improve on the situation. Alhaji Salia said the Ministry of Women and Children had launched its three-year Action Plan for the Implementation of Institutional Re-engineering to properly set the stage to emancipate women from all shackles of discrimination.

Women form 52% of the country's population and thus constitute a critical mass of workforce and a big pool of talent. For us to be able to access the opportunities women present, then we owe it to ourselves to invest in facilities to enhance women educational access in general and in particular erect structures to facilitate women and girls entry into areas they are underrepresented such as technology, Science and Mathematics through scholarships and special initiative programmes.

Society stands the chance of gaining than loosing for providing women with high level skills in entrepreneurship, in the development and use of technology and in diversified business practices. It is sad to note that women especially those from the rural communities still suffer oppression, discrimination and injustice though most of them are the financial pillars of their families. It is in the light of this that I see the way the International Women's Day is being celebrated as not proper enough to be able to liberate these rural women from oppression discrimination and poverty. In my opinion, the day is being celebrated by the few women elite to the neglect of these rural women who are mostly victims of oppression and discrimination.

The celebration of the International Women's Day should be marked with financial and logistics support for identified women groups from the hinterlands to empower them towards self liberation.

This can be possible if the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and women empowerment advocacy organisations such as NETRIGHT, Savannah Women's Empowerment Group-Ghana (SWEGG) and others start to mobilise funds from donor agencies towards the celebration of the day. It was gladdening when Madam Catherine Bob-Millar, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Women drew the attention of stakeholders to the devastating impact of 91galamsey' and 91Kayayee' on females especially those from the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions.

Women need to be motivated in their homes and communities to pursue their ambitions through strategies that will remove all socio-cultural obstacles.

The effort to create space for women to access education, training, science, technology and consequently decent work should happen within a broader framework.

Lets as a country draw some inspiration from Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey's words that 93If you educate a woman, you educate a nation and if you educate a man you educate an individual". 22 March 11