The Empowerment for Life Programme has stated that the Ghanaian society and concerned citizens need to create the needed ambience to awaken the interest and zeal of Ghanaian women in leadership, more importantly, political leadership.

“Non-governmental Organisations, political parties, government and its agencies should put in place positive discriminatory policies and legislative framework to propel social change that will help reconstruct and also promote women’s contribution and interest in national and local level leadership and governance process.”

This was in a statement issued by the Empowerment for Life Programme on the International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration signed by Mr Fuseini Abdul Rahim, its Technical Advisor, Advocacy and Gender and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale.

The IWD is marked globally on March 8, every year to recognise amongst others the contribution of women to the development of society.

The statement said “Ghanaian women still occupy a lower status as compared to men in areas of political decision-making. In the 2020 Parliamentary elections, out of a total of 275 Parliamentary seats, women only managed to win 40 seats representing 14 percent falling short of the minimum United Nations recommended threshold of 30%.”

It said “Undoubtedly, women are productive, but they go through unimaginable problems in competing and winning elections for political leadership roles more especially at the community level.”

It further stated that “women’s political participation is central to democratic governance since more than half of the world’s population are women and these numbers are even more pronounced in Ghana where women constitute 51.4 percent of the working age group with 56.3 percent forming the active population. 92 percent of women in self-employed jobs compared to 69 percent of men.”

The statement added that “in view of this, it is imperative for governments, stakeholders and interest groups to address the under-representation and low participation of women in political leadership.”

“Addressing the discriminatory structures on all facets of national life will help attract more women to develop an interest in leadership and significantly help in achieving an equal future for both women and men.”