Women's Empowerment and Good Governance Through - amarc

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Best Experiences for an Action Research Process
tions and protocols that recognize the rights of women. The main one is CEDAW (Convention
for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women).
Despite the well-intentioned laws and other efforts, research at the national, regional and
micro-level indicate that broad-based participation of women in community development and
governance is still minimal, especially in comparison with their numbers.
According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey of 2000, 44.1 per cent of women as opposed
to 21.1 per cent of men have no formal education. At the higher level, the gap is even larger,
with only 2.7 per cent women as compared to 15.8 per cent of men having the higher levels of
education needed for employment in the formal sector.
Factors such as poverty, early marriage and teenage pregnancy have also contributed to an
elevated school drop-out rate among girls and prevented a large number of females from attaining
a higher education.
Religion, cultural norms and the lack of economic power, together with the low level of female
education, have contributed to the low status of women in Ghanaian society.
Women in decision making
Despite the statistics, women have played, and continue to play, pivotal roles in the political,
social and economic life of Ghana. During the struggle for self-determination, women, including
those who were uneducated in formal terms, struggled and fought alongside their male
counterparts in the fight against colonial rule. One, Yaa Asantewaa, has become a revered
figure for taking up leadership in battle where men would not dare.
After the attainment of independence in 1957, the government of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah introduced an affirmative action program for women. Among other features, this
enabled the inclusion of women in the national legislature in recognition of the frontline role
women played in the struggle toward independence. However, in contemporary Ghana, 50
years after independence, the ratio of women to men at the national and local government
levels and in the public and corporate sectors does not reflect that of a nation where over 51
per cent of the population is comprised of women.