Multiple roles by women is no excuse for not aspiring to the top

Accra, July 13, GNA - Miss Teresa Nadia Abugah, head of Women's Desk of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said multiple roles by women is no excuse for not availing themselves of education and training opportunities in the country.

She said it was important for women to practice time management to improve their ability to equip themselves with requisite knowledge and skills to rise to top positions at their work places.

Miss Abugah was lecturing on topics including women and youth in trade unionism, gender and its key issues, and employer/union relationship at a workshop for women in the transport industry sponsored by the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union (GTPCWU) of the Trades Union Congress in Accra on Monday.

She said since women played important roles in the economic development of their countries it was important for them to be equipped to face the challenges of modern technology.

She expressed the need for a critical mass of women representation in organised labour to focus on gender issues in their constitutions to ensure that their needs were actually addressed at the negotiation table.

Miss Abugah expressed regret that only two women were serving on the Executive Committee of the TUC out of 36 members, and urged the participants to take advantage of the opportunities offered them to aspire to the top.

Mr Pius Quainoo, a resource person and general secretary of the Construction and Building Materials Workers' Union (CBMWU) who lectured the women on effective communication, urged them to challenge the under valuing of jobs they occupied through advocacy and campaigns.

He said occupational segregation should also be challenged through the public promotion of the employment of women in the transport industry, oil and gas that had been reserved for men.

He reminded local unions of the limitations to their power, and warned them not to do acts that would undermine their mother unions or bring them in confrontation with the law.

Mr Quainoo urged the women's committees to work to support their local unions to champion the cause of gender and to make themselves available for leadership roles.

Mr Emmanuel Mensah, General Secretary of the GTPCWU said the union would continue to empower more women in the transport, oil and gas industries to participate in trade union activities to ensure that their concerns were addressed.