Celebrating the Ghanaian woman on International Women’s Day 2007

As the world celebrates International women’s Day today , I salute all Ghanaian women for our tireless efforts to see our world and country make a movement towards equality , fairness and appreciation for all.

The day is usually commemorated with speeches , marches and many other activities geared towards creating awareness on gender issues in Ghana.

Elsewhere in countries like Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam International Women’s Day has been declared as an official holiday . The tradition sees men honoring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

For me it is worth taking stock of how far the Ghanaian woman has come since independence . I guess it may be an impossible task to chronicle all the achievements we as Ghanaian women have chalked since 1957. Even though . we now have an increasing critical mass of women's visibility as impressive role models in most aspects of life in Ghana ,the demographics indicates that there is still more room for improvement.

Even so , we have a good reason to celebrate Ghana @50 because parliament after couple year’s discussions and deliberations finally decided to pass the Domestic Violence Bill into law. Our most cherished hope now is to see the president in the spirit of Ghana@50 sign the law into effect as a birthday present to Ghanaian women.

I hope the many women who get to banquet and enjoy some cocktails at the presidency during this celebration will not forget to congratulate and urged the president to fast track his signature to the law. As we say in Ghana, ”Its better late than never” , we can reduce the abuse of women and children with that law.

I am hoping that in celebrating the International Women’s Day, the Ghanaian media will tell positive stories of Ghanaian women , stories that motivate, energies and empower women to believe in ourselves and continue with the work we are doing to sustain our world. Perhaps, we might want to move way from prominent women and talk to the every day women on the streets that have no access to media but have a beautiful story to tell.

I SALUTE ALL GHANAIAN WOMAN

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