Bono Regional Director for Gender, Joycelyn Adii, is advocating for women to continuously engage men for more reliable and effective actions in resolving issues limiting the progress of women.

According to her, the time-consuming nature of unpaid care work denies women from fully taking advantage of technology to improve their lives toward gender equity.

Unpaid care work refer to non-market and unpaid activities carried out in households, which prevent women from working to earn money, including caring for children and the elderly, and household chores, among others.

She made the call at an event to celebrate women on International Women’s Day in Sunyani.

The day is to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women, and draw attention to what needs to be done to accelerate gender equity.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Digital Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality; Embrace equity, the role of men in unpaid care work,’ she said men must make the effort to reduce the workload on women. 

She believes this will help women take full advantage of the enormous benefits of technology to improve their lives.

“Unpaid care work is time-consuming. It hinders women’s access to technology by limiting their time, resources, infrastructure, and social support for engaging in technology,” she explained.

In addressing these barriers, Joycelyn Adii said a comprehensive approach is required, taking into account “gender norms in infrastructure development, education, and training programs that are tailored towards women’s needs and schedules.”

The event, supported by Actionaid Ghana, Onga seasoning, and Cowbell milk, saw men engaged in a cooking competition to celebrate women and have a feel of what they go through.

These men represented institutions, including the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Journalist Association, and Ghana Private Road Transport Union, in cooking some Ghanaian foods such as fufu with nkatekonto and banku with okro stew. 

According to Mrs. Adii, the cooking competition was to solicit the support of men in addressing the issue of unpaid care work in homes.

“We hope the event would help drum home the message of unpaid care work and solicit for the support of men in recognition, reduction, redistribution, and representation to unearth the untapped potentials in women,” she said.

On her part, the Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu Banahene, in appreciating the contribution of women to the socioeconomic development of the country, cherished single mothers and encouraged them to work hard and not give up on their children.

“I thank the single parents among us. They should not be discouraged when the men are not there to support the upbringing of the children due to death, sickness or any other misfortune,” she said and added that “with hard work, we can do it to brighten the future of the children”. 

Bono Regional Programs Manager of Actionaid, Kwame Afram Denkyira, thanked women for their achievements despite the challenges and also appealed to parents to be steadfast in the upbringing of their children in ways that do not depart from their cultural identity.