UCC, ICRW, Mastercard Foundation disseminate national findings on Gender barriers in Ghana’s creative sector
Government officials, researchers, development partners and creatives converged on Accra on Tuesday for the national dissemination of the Behind the Scenes (BtS): Young Women and Gender-Based Inequities in Africa’s Creative Sector project, a study that has documented widespread sexual harassment and discrimination facing young women in Ghana’s creative economy.
The event, was organised by the Behind the Scenes Project Ghana, based in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), and led by Prof. Georgina Yaa Oduro and Prof. Joshua Amo-Adjei, with support from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) – Africa in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. It was chaired by Dr. Rebecca Ohene-Asah, Dean of the Faculty of Digital Media and Design at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC).
In her introduction and climate-setting remarks, Country Lead Prof. Oduro traced the project’s journey from its inception in 2024 to the present, outlining its dual focus on documenting the lived experiences of young women in the creative sector and building the research capacity of young people, including through the work of a National Creative Ambassador.
She thanked the many stakeholders who had supported the project from its inception workshop through data collection to the day’s dissemination.
Presenting the study’s key findings, Co-Lead Prof. Amo-Adjei of UCC’s Department of Population and Health said sexual harassment and discrimination emerged as rampant and among the most significant challenges facing young women in the sector. He noted, however, a striking counterpoint: despite these barriers, young women continued to find their creative work fulfilling and remained determined to push forward, a resilience he said should shape how stakeholders design future interventions.
Delivering a statement on behalf of the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, a Mrs Vera Karikari Bediako, Ministry representative described the passage of Ghana’s Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act as a historic milestone, noting that while its implementation is often discussed in relation to the public sector, its provisions extend equally to industries such as the creative economy.
She said the Ministry had established a Gender Equity Committee and Secretariat and rolled out stakeholder engagements, capacity-building and public education to support the Act’s implementation, and welcomed the BtS findings as evidence to strengthen those efforts.
The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie said the experiences of young women have often remained hidden “behind the scenes” of a sector celebrated as the heartbeat of Ghana’s cultural identity, and called for the findings to translate into safer workspaces and clearer leadership pathways for women, committing her Ministry to working with the Creative Arts Agency on the recommendations.
National Creative Ambassador Ms Juliana Amoateng said months of translating the research into public conversations had shown her that women responded to the findings not with surprise but with recognition, sharing their own experiences once the data gave language to what they had long carried.
Representatives of the Mastercard Foundation, ICRW, UNESCO, DRIC-UCC, UniMAC, the Ghana Culture Forum, the Ghana Arts and Film and Theatre Academy (GAFTA), UNFPA, the Ghana National Research Fund (GNRF), the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the National Theatre of Ghana were also present, with several delivering messages of solidarity and reaffirming their commitment to the project’s goals. The programme concluded with a session on the way forward.
The dissemination is part of a wider seven-country study, also running in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda.
FROM TIMES REPORTER, CAPE COAST
