‘Grant more women platform for political discourse’

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is calling on media organizations to empanel more women for political discussions. This is part of a campaign for increased women’s participation in governance.

The Director at the Ministry, Patience Opoku, is highly disappointed at the low representation of women in decision making even though they form more than 50 per cent of the Ghanaian population.

She was speaking at a forum to mark this year’s AU Democracy Day.

She said: “The news media, stereotypes, and discriminatory practices as well as social beliefs undermine the efforts of women and other vulnerable groups to actively participate in the democratic processes”.

She said the media should take up the challenge to ensure analytical reportage, innovative documentaries, and commentary writing that demonstrates a high level of professionalism with a twist of some gender sensitivity.

This, she said, would help break social cultural and economical barriers that relegate women to the background.