Ms Samia Nkrumah, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Member of Parliament for Jomoro at the weekend challenged gender advocates to join the Elections 2012 contest as they seek to empower other women to contest for elective positions. "Empowering women through capacity building workshops are good but more importantly we need all gender advocates to join in the contest for political position especially parliamentary seats in Elections 2012. "Most gender advocates have leverage in the social-political environment, which must translate into assuming leadership positions to influence national policies," Ms Nkrumah told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the sidelines of the workshop to develop a women's manual at Aburi. The workshop on the theme: "A Woman's Manual Towards Increased Women's Parliamentary Representation", was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for representatives of four political parties with representation in Parliament. Sharing her experience at the workshop, Ms Nkrumah who is seeking for a second term bid for the Jomoro seat, said the path to gender equality must start from the local level, through the political grass root structures to the national levels into governance. She noted that the only way for achieving gender parity is through legislation, without which it is not going to work, "as the terrain is becoming more and more difficult for women". Ms Nkrumah who is also contesting for the CPP National Chairmanship slot, encouraged women aspirants never to be discouraged by negative tags, name calling and personality attacks "You must develop the stamina to go through the rough campaign terrain…you need to be bold, firm and courageous and develop strong mental aptitude that the impossible is possible. "Your private life would be hit, but its important to focus on your strong famine qualities to move on…never engage in personality attacks". Ms Nkrumah also advised aspiring women parliamentary candidates to form a strong team involving opinion leaders, traditional and religious leaders in their networking for the constituency. Mrs Beatrice Boateng, New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, appealed to the media to support women aspirants, "we are your sisters, wives, mothers and colleagues, we need encouragement rather than the constant personal attacks". She also urged gender advocacy groups to offer financial support to women aspirants as "we need the cash to move around". Mrs Boateng encouraged women aspirants especially those who failed at their first attempt never to be discouraged but mobilize and fight on, engage in social services to help your communities among other things. Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, Deputy Minister of Women and Children Affairs, noted that the seed of democracy lies in the principle that the legitimacy of power to make decisions about peoples lives, their society and their country should derive from a choice by those who will be affected. "For many centuries the basis of this legitimacy was limited and many were excluded from making a choice: bonded persons, those without property or formal education and overwhelmingly, women were not given the franchise and so did not have a choice. "The men folks were the voices of the voices of women….this unacceptable situation has since the past few decades changed. However, the quantum of representation in national legislatures is not significant and continues to dwindle especially in our case", she noted. Hajia Gariba said: "it is my conviction that if policy decisions and laws are to be made for the benefit of all members of society and in particular its larger segment of women. "Then the extent to which the decision-making body is able to take into account the experience of the broad spectrum of the society will be the gauge of the degree to which its decisions will reflect its aspirations. "The representation of women and the inclusion of their perspective and experience into decision-making process will inevitably lead to solutions that are more viable and durable and satisfy a broader spectrum of society. She said: "That is the basis of our drive that women should be part of the process". Hajia Gariba noted that despite the drive and efforts women have made they continue to face difficulty in entering institutions of governance and high level decision making. "Political Parties failed to choose women as candidates and the electorates reflect and act on the gender stereotypes in society by voting for men", she stated. The Deputy Minister therefore called on women to organize both inside and outside their political parties and encourage political parties to set down clear rules for selection of parliamentary candidates. The Political Parties Manual on Women in Politics in Ghana seeks to advocate that women's participation in governance can be facilitated by strengthening their representation and candidature in the election process. The manual is being developed by the IEA, a think-tank, in collaboration with the National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention Peoples Party (CPP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC). Leadership of the various political parties are expected to adopt and sign at a later date the Political Parties Manual on Women in Politics in Ghana. Representatives of NDC, NPP, CPP and PNC who have representation in parliament, as well as media practitioners, female members of parliament, aspiring parliamentarians and educationists are attending the three-day workshop. Source: GNA