Discrimination against women in the Ghanaian culture and its negative repercussions in Ghana’s developmental aspirations

That there is discrim­ination against women in the Ghana­ian society by virtue of the dictates of the Ghanaian culture cannot be denied by any authoritative expert of culture or cultural anthro­pologist.

This unpalatable situation had consistently worked negatively against a speedy development of the coun­try since Ghana’s political independence in the year 1957 from British colonial rule and exploitation.

The Ghanaian society is inherently patriarchy-bi­ased in conformity to the age-old patriarchy concept which exists in the human society worldwide, particu­larly in the African society.

In the Ghanaian society, women are generally held in low esteem; and as a result, they are not given the oppor­tunity to occupy and serve on important roles in the society in its continual survival, devel­opment and prosperity.

Ghana’s developmental pro­cess had negatively suffered due to this age-old patriar­chy concept which is deeply entrenched in the Ghanaian society.

In the arena of politics, Ghanaian women have not prominently featured in the activities of politics of the country as they had been denied the opportunity to occupy and to serve in im­portant and influential public positions.

Government after govern­ment since Ghana’s inde­pendence had discriminately ignored women serving as ministers or heads or direc­tors of public organisations and institutions; although many Ghanaian women are highly qualified as their male counterparts in the Ghana­ian society by virtue of their educational and social back­grounds.

However, in this 21st cen­tury of human existence on earth, there are rapid changes and rapid transformations in all fields of human endeavour and this has precipitated a new phenomenon of women’s fight against this entrenched age-old patriarchy concept that exists in the human society .

As a result, women all over the world are now challenging for their rights and asserting their equality with their men counterparts in all fields of human endeavour.

This is a strong and pow­erful feminist force which is sweeping all over the globe like a strong hurricane wind blowing off anything on its way!

Some sophisticated Ghana­ian women have solidarity and are part of this global move­ment, which is set to bring down all the barriers against women subjugation and dis­crimination in the human soci­ety in the present 21st century.

The first government of Ghana after Ghana’s political independence, the CPP gov­ernment under the leadership of Osagyefo, Dr Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory had few women serving as Ministers or holding responsi­ble public positions as Heads or Directors of public organi­sations and institutions.

Subsequent governments did not do better in terms of women being appointed as Ministers or Heads and Direc­tors of public organisations and institutions even up to the present ruling government of the country.

It is unfortunate that statistics or data is not pre­sented here to support this discrimination against women in the society. But this fact is indisputable about women discrimination in the Ghana­ian society.

In the light of what had been articulated about dis­crimination against women in the Ghanaian society, I suggest that prospective government should try to substantially increase women representation in government and other public positions, so that Ghana’s developmental pace will be accelerated.

This is because women can contribute significantly to the developmental process of a country like Ghana, one of the fastest developing African countries in the world today, which is currently pursuing a developmental programme designated as the Ghana Be­yond Aid Agenda.

Ghana stands to gain a lot by many women being given the opportunity to serve in influential public positions in the developmental process of the country.

In conclusion, I assert cate­gorically that women discrimi­nation in the Ghanaian society must come to an end now, because the age-old patriarchy concept is fast fading away in the face of a strong feminist ideal, which has engulfed the whole world at the moment; and Ghana and its obsolete age-old patriarchy biased con­cept culture must give way to the global feminist movement, which is pitched against the continuous hitherto patriarchy concept ideal; so that Ghana can move very fast with her developmental goals, such as the current ongoing one, called the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.

BY MICHAEL AKENOO: THEATRE CRITIC