Women's Participation In Ghanaian Politics: An Assessment Of The Opportunities And Limitations

ABSTRACT

The historical subordination of women especially in public life has been widely discussed and efforts are being made globally to reverse this trend. Ghana is not insulated from this global trend. Thus, this study selectively focused on examining women’s participation in national politics in Ghana, an attempt to find out factors accounting for their low participation and the opportunities that exist to promote their effective involvement. The methodology was qualitative in design and involved interviews with women parliamentarians, ministers, council of state members, national executive members of political parties and heads of corporate institutions. Apart from relying on primary data from these respondents, the study also used secondary data from available literature to reinforce the findings. This study found that despite the incessant discussions on women’s underrepresentation in national politics and the global call to support women’s increased participation, their numbers in national politics are still considerably low. In the national parliament for instance, the proportion of women since 1992 has not gone beyond eleven per cent although they constitute over fifty percent of the national population. The study realized that in part, factors such as male dominance in institutions of authority, systematic discrimination against females on the basis of age, public vilification and attacks on women’s personalities, lack of commitment in implementing affirmative action promises as well as the increasing monetization in politics contribute to the low participation of women in politics. These factors, however, are not insurmountable. It is a wakeup call on government, civil society, women groups and political parties to engineer the adoption of a national affirmation action policy which will have the endorsement of all political parties. Political parties should also abolish unfair and very high nomination fees for women. It is believed that the adoption of these xi strategies including the establishment of a special fund to support women in politics will help to reverse the trend.