Report by Kobina Andoh Amoakwa, Oslo, Norway Former First Lady and President of the 31st December Women’s Movement, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, says women serve as a true barometer in checking whether governments are doing well or not. If they (women) were empowered “and helped to deal with negative things that affect them and are inimical to their development, it would definitely help their families, communities and the nation,” Nana Konadu said and explained that it is necessary women are included in the hierarchy of various sectors of the state so that they can contribute in support of their lesser known ones to rise above the drudgery of life and help to boost the moral upbringing and training of the youth. Speaking on the role of women in socio-economic development: the case of the 31st December Women’s Movement in Ghana, at a seminar marking the inauguration of the Norway Branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Oslo, Norway, the former First Lady said major developmental indices affect women directly. Water, environment, health, population, children’s education, education of the woman are major socio-economic pointers that women have to deal with on a daily basis, she noted. Nana Konadu said the 31st December Women’s Movement had worked tirelessly to give women the strength of character to take on roles hitherto preserved for men. “In recent times more women have found their place at some of the most important decision making levels. “During the Nkrumah era women were asked to get involved in the struggle towards freedom and self-governance but after winning the election through the hard work of women they were relegated to chorus singers for the CPP. “So it was with successive governments until the advent of the December 31, 1981 revolution.” Nana Konadu said the call by the then Chairman Rawlings was for participatory democracy, people’s power and no fence sitters. All Ghanaians including women folk were enjoined to take part in reversing the clock of retrogression. ‘But even then women were still being elbowed out in the grassroots structures such as the People’s Defence Committees (PDCs). “We decided the only way was to form our own organisation but still got queries from the hierarchy of the PDC’s and Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs) asking who gave us the right to set up such an organisation.” The former First Lady said the 31st December Women’s Movement was established primarily to target women in economic activity, to educate them on their rights and help promote laws that protected women and children.