Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann has argued that an ideal society may delay if society keeps doing the same things which have resulted in the present undesirable outcomes.

“So many things are accepted as normal.  If you have done things in a certain way for a long time, it takes effort to change. That is Newton’s first law,” the host of the National Science and Math Quiz said.

Dr. Kaufmann said abuse against women,  for instance, has persisted because nothing is changing attitudinally. She cited instances where in-laws accept apologies from people who abuse their relatives when processes have been activated to punish the misdeeds of the offending party.

She was speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show Friday, which was hosted in the Achimota Secondary School as part of activities by the radio station to mark International Women’s Day.

International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 every year. It is a focal point in the movement for women's rights.

 Dr. Kaufmann also argued that if the country adopts innovative means of addressing social inequalities, the needed balance can be produced to give the country access to the best of all of its great human resource.  

“Having a balanced society brings out quality representations of our people. I am more interested in equality and bridging the gap,”she said. “Research shows that quality comes from balance. We must have all our populations represented on the table in every conversation.”

She recommended deliberate acts such as “opportunities and encouraging people to be involved to change the narrative.”

According to her, that was how she helped many ladies with the potential to accept the field of engineering and mathematics. She said she became a role model to make people know they can also do it. By that deliberate act, she has broken the myths surrounding the sciences. 

On International Women’s Day, Dr. Kaufmann gave society Newton’s first law to meditate on. “An object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force.” This is what is required to change the narrative of injustice against women.

Gifty Andoh-Appiah was the host of the Joy FM's Super Morning Show on the International Women's Day.

On Women’s Day, history recounts how after the Socialist Party of America organized a Women's Day on February 28, 1909 in New York, the 1910 International Socialist Woman's Conference suggested a Women's Day be held annually.

After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1975 by the United Nations.