We live in an amazing period - not spectacular, but interesting. For the first time in the history of Ghana, it appears as though a woman has a good shot to be on a major party ticket for the office of president of the Republic of Ghana. I say not unique because the woman candidate wants to remove a sitting ruling government in its second year in office, thus the reality of its happening is low, since the sitting government will do everything within and above the state-power to ensure they at least finish their first term in office. But anyway we would still go on and analyze whether a woman can win a presidential election, especially in the context in Ghana, also whether the president has to always be a he and lastly can anyone just come out to contest the presidential election. It should be a fascinating story, should a woman win the Ghanaian presidential election. Lest I forget, I know Madam Johnson did it in Liberia against George Weah. But I do not believe the Ghanaian people would ever take a woman that was duly elected out of office, it’s my suggestion that if we find that she should not be in office; they should take up the issue before the primaries rather than after. Since it has become a norm in Ghana that when a group of individuals in a party dislikes a President, they do not even wait till his term ends, but that they start playing mind games to remove him from office. The first issue we would deal is the fact that, in order for Ghanaian women to accomplish the feat of becoming a president, there are a lot of things a woman will have to overcome. First, she will have to overcome history. The fact that she is the first is both a positive and a negative. A positive in the sense that people in Ghana like “firsts”. They like story of the first female president. They like supporting the “underdog” that has a chance of winning- and the fact that a woman has never declared her intention of contesting for the highest seats in Ghana. But it’s also a negative become people can be finicky about placing a lot of trust in the unknown versus a known quantity. Secondly, she will have to overcome prejudice; there will be many who will not vote for a woman, period. There are many that believe that only men should be President. The woman candidate will have to convince them that what she may lack by not being male, she makes up for with her feminine characteristics- that they are her strength. Lastly, and most interestingly, she needs to sell her husband (if married) as an asset- or at least not a liability. If a woman gets elected, it will be the first time in Ghana that we have “First Gentleman”. It sees awkward, but there is nothing that we cannot achieve. So, according to what we’ve looked into, a woman can be constitutionally elected to the position of president of the Republic of Ghana. However, the other restrictions still apply. She must be a natural born citizen, or around when the Constitution was adopted. She must be over the age of 35. But now that we’ve answered the question of can she be president, there’s still one issue left to discuss. Not should a woman be President– although this is an interesting one so far as Scripture goes. I don’t tend to believe that Biblical injunctions against woman leaders apply to the secular realm. I do believe that it applies to the family– so I don’t know how a married woman can be a leader and still be in submission to her husband! But the government of Ghana is not a church. She doesn’t have to keep silent, and the leader does not have to be a man. Whether it is better for a man to be it is still an open question to me. Also, the whole question needs to be framed in context with the other nominees. There are some women in Ghana that I would personally prefer over some men. However, being a Christian, I believe that the last qualification for President must be that the person is the right person for the right time, as we need someone who can alleviate poverty in Ghana irrespective of their gender! In conclusion, it’s not impossible for a woman to be President in Ghana. It’s not illegal. In certain cases it may be preferable. But she will have a lot of obstacles to overcome in order to do it. Author: Paul Danquah, University of East London