Ghana: Gender Equity in Women's Rights and Education
Written by Alison
My country, Ghana’s, gender distribution in education is 88.3 for males versus 83.2 for females in terms of the youth literacy rate percentage in 2008 to 2012 of fifteen to 24 years of age. There is only a 5.1 percent difference between the youth literacy rate of that of males and females. Girls definitely have equal access to primary and secondary schools as of the years 2008 to 2012 for the primary school participation for males in terms of net attendance is 72.2 percent while for females, it is 73.8 percent, meaning that females have just as equal access to education than males if the attendance rate percentage is actually higher by 1.6 percent, where even survival to the last primary grade between them is 72.2 percent. Speaking of secondary school participation, girls most definitely have equal access as the net attendance ratio for males is only 39.7 percent, while for females it is 43.6 percent, which makes a difference of 3.9 percent of those girls who make it to secondary school than boys. According to the Ghana Ministry of Education (MOE) performance report of 2011, Lewin’s summary of the Create project’s work in 2011, and the study of Nguyen and Wodon done on the gap within genders in terms of education attainment within Ghana, much has been done to provide a valuable analysis on the data of Ghana’s education and educational inequity for both detailed social and geographic locations. Key issues include the fact that there have been huge improvements upon the enrollment for girls and boys at primary levels of education; however, there are areas to be addressed in distress.In terms of education attainment, however, there are inequalities in female access to education as although Ghana is close to reaching gender parity in primary education, the gender gap at post-primary education leveling remains a challenge that has yet to be solved along with customs needing to be broken, too.
For example, many of the girls are put at a disadvantage for being over-age at school, causing them to therefore be more vulnerable towards school drop outs, especially in areas and communities of people where it is common to get married early. According to international evidence, students who are over-age towards their grade level tend to learn less well and gain even less of a learning experience each year they go to school. It is suggested that the difference in age levels within a classroom can increase the vulnerability of girls going to school once they have reached their teens and hit puberty. One reason as to explain why Ghana’s gender parity is still faltering is the trokosi system in Ghana. Young girls are facing trouble when it comes to this system, which is a common practice of putting girls in enforced enslavement as a way of compensating for crimes or other violations made by the family of the young girl. According to the United Nations Population Fund, it is estimated that approximately 5,000 to 20,000 girls are held in this type of ritual slavery, although it greatly varies, but it is also approximated that nine percent of the ones held are under the age of ten.Therefore, for these issues has Ghana taken many steps in encouraging girls to go to school today.
Ghana is supposedly on track in terms of achieving gender parity at the Primary and Junior High School (JHS) levels according to trends, however at the primary level, the equality has been degrading at a rate of 0.96 since 2006 to 2007. However, gender equality at JHS seems to have increased slightly from 0.91 in 2006 and 2007 to 0.92 in 2007 all the way until 2010. On the other hand, the equality at the Kindergarten level has slightly degraded from 0.99 in 2006 and 2007 to 0.98 in 2008 to 2010. The progress needed to increase the number of women in public life has undergone setbacks as the number of women elected to Parliament was 29 out of 275 during the 2012 general elections, which is only approximately ten percent, putting Ghana under the international average of thirteen percent. The access women have to wage employment in non-agricultural sectors has also remained very weak, which is another reason as to why the country is struggling with promoting gender equality and women empowerment. The government has motioned for some actions in the promotion of gender equity which include the strengthening of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for enhancing the gender mainstreaming and accounting, the building of the capacity of 50 women candidates for the District Assembly election from each region, the composing of data on potential women in leadership positions at MMDAs to monitor the growth of women participation in decision making at that level, and the launch of the “Women in Governance Fund” to support the activities of women in the district. Although many contributions have been made, there are still a number of key challenges that set back the goal of gender equality. This may include the low female enrollment rates at secondary and tertiary levels which is as a result, challenging to women participation in decision-making at higher levels and their ability to wage employment at higher level jobs, the societal and cultural practices and attitudes that tend to disappoint women from participating in wage employment and many other occupations like commercial driving, welding, and auto-mechanics, and the challenges that face a girl’s education such as the standard practices of early marriages, customary fostering, and puberty rites which still persist. There are still questions as to how difficult it would be to break these societal customs of discouraging women to having power as the average attendance and enrollment rate of girls at the kindergarten, primary, post-primary, secondary, tertiary, and even the JHS levels still remains highly inconsistent on the negative scale side. As you can see, there is still quite an uneven balance between key challenges of gender equality and women empowerment in Ghana.
Besides education issues between gender equity within Ghana, the rights of women are also another issue, however these are rarely ever discussed in the Ghanaian media, whether it is print, electronic, or online as they are not treated with the respect they deserve. Many people is Ghana today are ignorant of the key issues that affect women as one could say there is a slur put on the nation who claims to be a “democratic” one, but could care less for female issues in Ghana and how they are treated. Despite the historical fact of the “real Eve” being an African woman, many women in Ghana are still currently being treated on a whole new level as second class citizen, even though they make up the majority of the population. Also, despite the fact that Ghana has its first female speaker of the parliament, its first ever female chief justice, a handful of important female people, some top female television presenters and some top female corporate executives, women still have raw rights in the country of Ghana, in which drastic steps must be taken to ensure that government institutions, the corporate sector, and institutions generally have a fair amount of women in representation since at the moment, women are “under-represented,” in a large number of key institutions and corporate bodies all throughout the country. It is also important to note some interesting contradictions about women in Ghanaian society as many Ghanaian men claim to love their mothers, wives, sisters, girlfriends, and such, although the majority of the women are looked down upon as sexual objects varying from the advertising of products on television and other music videos depicting Ghanaian women as sexual dolls. In addition to this, increasing cases of sexual harassment and rape of women in the workplace are showing up when graphed out by surprisingly, the same men who claimed to love their mother, sisters, and so forth. Secondly, Ghanaian women as a whole are in a way considered from birth to be mothers and wives in the future and not necessarily be career-orientated women and/or contribute to national development. There is also a disturbing trend that in the corporate world, some young girls looking for jobs are told that either they engage in sexual relations with someone important like a celebrity or else they do not get the job. In Ghanaian society, it is common to find in many places boys who are preferred over girls to get an education because it is believed that boys will grow up to be popular political men while believed by many that the woman’s place is as a nurse and babysitter for looking after the children. Whether or not Ghanaians and especially Ghanaian men believe it, the reality is that women in Ghana represent much less of the formal workforce sector than men, while making up the majority of the poor, the unemployed, and the informal sector workforce. Women do not always have access to the resources and education that would improve their skills and capabilities as they are often overlooked by governmental policies that promote human development in Ghana. By empowering women with the skills and training that they need, policy makers would be both creating a stable and expert workforce to support their projects, as well as eliminating poverty and social disadvantages that accompany unemployment. It is well documented that the empowerment of women leads to the economic, political and social development of developing countries; therefore, Ghana must take advantage of this opportunity to bring women into the workforce. It is not enough for Ghana's policy makers to simply “encourage” gender equity, but take action.
Ghana, my country, has taken many concrete steps to encourage girls to stay in school. One of the steps is the usage of scholarships as cash is given to girls and/or families for the purpose of school attendance, in which this includes that of scholarships, conditional cash transfers, and in-kind contributions like uniforms or textbooks. Another step is transportation and boarding as there are interventions to reduce or eliminate the costs for girls traveling both to and from school in order to ensure such safety. Community engagement is another one as activities by and for the community for and about girls’ education is held in order to promote positive attitudes to support girls in obtaining an education. Fourthly, child protection and safety have been initiated where training, development of codes of conduct, and school guidelines to ensure girls’ safety in the school environment have begun. Gender friendly infrastructure is another step taken of interventions taking place such as having separate toilet facilities for girls and the ensuring health of girls. Other steps taken include having complementary education, mentoring, tutoring, peer support, gender training, the recruitment and training of female teachers and assistant teachers and other educators, school feeding and other health-related programming, compulsory and free pre-school/kindergarten education as a key to improving access to primary and lower secondary education, Science, Maths, Technology (SMT) camps/clinic and FAWE’s Centres of Excellence to encourage. New national or international programs that UN Women could create to encourage girls and young women to stay in school include are to have programs that promote girls speaking up and not bending to someone’s will as in actually having the want to go to school or provide a program that would be fun for girls and make them want to go to school on their own, not by force, but just by ecstasy of liking school and wanting to stay even longer and keep going. Although these steps are small, they are a start to equality, too.
Works Cited
E., Mary-Anne Addo, External Resource Mobilization-Multilateral Director, and Ministry Of Finance & Economic Planning, Gh. ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: GHANA’S EXPERIENCE (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
E., Prepared By Camfed Ghana, For The Ministry Of Education And The Girls’ Education Unit,, and Ghana Education Service. What Works in Girls’ Education in Ghana (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
"Ghana." Gender Equality in. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
"Millennium Development Goal 3." UNDP in Ghana. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
"Womens' Rights in Ghana Now!!!!" Modern Ghana. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 201
For example, many of the girls are put at a disadvantage for being over-age at school, causing them to therefore be more vulnerable towards school drop outs, especially in areas and communities of people where it is common to get married early. According to international evidence, students who are over-age towards their grade level tend to learn less well and gain even less of a learning experience each year they go to school. It is suggested that the difference in age levels within a classroom can increase the vulnerability of girls going to school once they have reached their teens and hit puberty. One reason as to explain why Ghana’s gender parity is still faltering is the trokosi system in Ghana. Young girls are facing trouble when it comes to this system, which is a common practice of putting girls in enforced enslavement as a way of compensating for crimes or other violations made by the family of the young girl. According to the United Nations Population Fund, it is estimated that approximately 5,000 to 20,000 girls are held in this type of ritual slavery, although it greatly varies, but it is also approximated that nine percent of the ones held are under the age of ten.Therefore, for these issues has Ghana taken many steps in encouraging girls to go to school today.
Ghana is supposedly on track in terms of achieving gender parity at the Primary and Junior High School (JHS) levels according to trends, however at the primary level, the equality has been degrading at a rate of 0.96 since 2006 to 2007. However, gender equality at JHS seems to have increased slightly from 0.91 in 2006 and 2007 to 0.92 in 2007 all the way until 2010. On the other hand, the equality at the Kindergarten level has slightly degraded from 0.99 in 2006 and 2007 to 0.98 in 2008 to 2010. The progress needed to increase the number of women in public life has undergone setbacks as the number of women elected to Parliament was 29 out of 275 during the 2012 general elections, which is only approximately ten percent, putting Ghana under the international average of thirteen percent. The access women have to wage employment in non-agricultural sectors has also remained very weak, which is another reason as to why the country is struggling with promoting gender equality and women empowerment. The government has motioned for some actions in the promotion of gender equity which include the strengthening of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for enhancing the gender mainstreaming and accounting, the building of the capacity of 50 women candidates for the District Assembly election from each region, the composing of data on potential women in leadership positions at MMDAs to monitor the growth of women participation in decision making at that level, and the launch of the “Women in Governance Fund” to support the activities of women in the district. Although many contributions have been made, there are still a number of key challenges that set back the goal of gender equality. This may include the low female enrollment rates at secondary and tertiary levels which is as a result, challenging to women participation in decision-making at higher levels and their ability to wage employment at higher level jobs, the societal and cultural practices and attitudes that tend to disappoint women from participating in wage employment and many other occupations like commercial driving, welding, and auto-mechanics, and the challenges that face a girl’s education such as the standard practices of early marriages, customary fostering, and puberty rites which still persist. There are still questions as to how difficult it would be to break these societal customs of discouraging women to having power as the average attendance and enrollment rate of girls at the kindergarten, primary, post-primary, secondary, tertiary, and even the JHS levels still remains highly inconsistent on the negative scale side. As you can see, there is still quite an uneven balance between key challenges of gender equality and women empowerment in Ghana.
Besides education issues between gender equity within Ghana, the rights of women are also another issue, however these are rarely ever discussed in the Ghanaian media, whether it is print, electronic, or online as they are not treated with the respect they deserve. Many people is Ghana today are ignorant of the key issues that affect women as one could say there is a slur put on the nation who claims to be a “democratic” one, but could care less for female issues in Ghana and how they are treated. Despite the historical fact of the “real Eve” being an African woman, many women in Ghana are still currently being treated on a whole new level as second class citizen, even though they make up the majority of the population. Also, despite the fact that Ghana has its first female speaker of the parliament, its first ever female chief justice, a handful of important female people, some top female television presenters and some top female corporate executives, women still have raw rights in the country of Ghana, in which drastic steps must be taken to ensure that government institutions, the corporate sector, and institutions generally have a fair amount of women in representation since at the moment, women are “under-represented,” in a large number of key institutions and corporate bodies all throughout the country. It is also important to note some interesting contradictions about women in Ghanaian society as many Ghanaian men claim to love their mothers, wives, sisters, girlfriends, and such, although the majority of the women are looked down upon as sexual objects varying from the advertising of products on television and other music videos depicting Ghanaian women as sexual dolls. In addition to this, increasing cases of sexual harassment and rape of women in the workplace are showing up when graphed out by surprisingly, the same men who claimed to love their mother, sisters, and so forth. Secondly, Ghanaian women as a whole are in a way considered from birth to be mothers and wives in the future and not necessarily be career-orientated women and/or contribute to national development. There is also a disturbing trend that in the corporate world, some young girls looking for jobs are told that either they engage in sexual relations with someone important like a celebrity or else they do not get the job. In Ghanaian society, it is common to find in many places boys who are preferred over girls to get an education because it is believed that boys will grow up to be popular political men while believed by many that the woman’s place is as a nurse and babysitter for looking after the children. Whether or not Ghanaians and especially Ghanaian men believe it, the reality is that women in Ghana represent much less of the formal workforce sector than men, while making up the majority of the poor, the unemployed, and the informal sector workforce. Women do not always have access to the resources and education that would improve their skills and capabilities as they are often overlooked by governmental policies that promote human development in Ghana. By empowering women with the skills and training that they need, policy makers would be both creating a stable and expert workforce to support their projects, as well as eliminating poverty and social disadvantages that accompany unemployment. It is well documented that the empowerment of women leads to the economic, political and social development of developing countries; therefore, Ghana must take advantage of this opportunity to bring women into the workforce. It is not enough for Ghana's policy makers to simply “encourage” gender equity, but take action.
Ghana, my country, has taken many concrete steps to encourage girls to stay in school. One of the steps is the usage of scholarships as cash is given to girls and/or families for the purpose of school attendance, in which this includes that of scholarships, conditional cash transfers, and in-kind contributions like uniforms or textbooks. Another step is transportation and boarding as there are interventions to reduce or eliminate the costs for girls traveling both to and from school in order to ensure such safety. Community engagement is another one as activities by and for the community for and about girls’ education is held in order to promote positive attitudes to support girls in obtaining an education. Fourthly, child protection and safety have been initiated where training, development of codes of conduct, and school guidelines to ensure girls’ safety in the school environment have begun. Gender friendly infrastructure is another step taken of interventions taking place such as having separate toilet facilities for girls and the ensuring health of girls. Other steps taken include having complementary education, mentoring, tutoring, peer support, gender training, the recruitment and training of female teachers and assistant teachers and other educators, school feeding and other health-related programming, compulsory and free pre-school/kindergarten education as a key to improving access to primary and lower secondary education, Science, Maths, Technology (SMT) camps/clinic and FAWE’s Centres of Excellence to encourage. New national or international programs that UN Women could create to encourage girls and young women to stay in school include are to have programs that promote girls speaking up and not bending to someone’s will as in actually having the want to go to school or provide a program that would be fun for girls and make them want to go to school on their own, not by force, but just by ecstasy of liking school and wanting to stay even longer and keep going. Although these steps are small, they are a start to equality, too.
Works Cited
E., Mary-Anne Addo, External Resource Mobilization-Multilateral Director, and Ministry Of Finance & Economic Planning, Gh. ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: GHANA’S EXPERIENCE (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
E., Prepared By Camfed Ghana, For The Ministry Of Education And The Girls’ Education Unit,, and Ghana Education Service. What Works in Girls’ Education in Ghana (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
"Ghana." Gender Equality in. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
"Millennium Development Goal 3." UNDP in Ghana. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
"Womens' Rights in Ghana Now!!!!" Modern Ghana. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 201