KUDOS TO OUR WOMEN (MARCH 11)

GHANA joined the global community to mark International Women’s Day on March 8 on the theme, “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls”.
The day is set aside by the United Nations to promote and protect equal rights of women and celebrate the contributions and achievements of women all over the world in the political, social and economic realms.
In 1986, the country ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 to reinforce the provisions of existing international instruments designed to combat continuing discrimination against women.
In addition to this, the 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides a framework for equality of all persons and outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender/sex. Indeed, sections of the Constitution protect and promote all human rights and also prohibit all harmful customary practices.
The promulgation of new legislation, such as the Domestic Violence Act and the Human Trafficking Act, can be listed as positive efforts by the country to improve the status of women.
Ghana, like other nations, can also boast a number of women in ministerial and other top positions in the country. Presently, women are the heads of two of the four arms of government.
The first female Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, was appointed in 2007. The country also made history with the appointment of the first female Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, a retired Supreme Court judge.
The first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, was inducted into office last year, while the Ghana Police Service is headed by the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson.
The achievements of women in the National Farmers Day awards and the Best Teacher awards can also not be glossed over. Madam Doris Naana Marfo, an English Language teacher and Assistant Headmistress of the Sunyani Senior High School (SHS) in the Brong Ahafo Region, and Faustina Gyeketey, a teacher of the Obokrom-Kumasi District Assembly (D/A) Junior High School (JHS) in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region, won the enviable Best Teacher awards in 2005 and 2007, respectively.
Furthermore, it is heart-warming that eight out of the 35 ministers appointed by President J. E. A. Mills are women.
Despite these significant gains, women’s right groups have established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevail in Africa, in spite of increasing efforts being made to address them.
It is also unfortunate that although women comprise a little more than half of the world’s population and perform two thirds of the world’s work, unfortunately, according to United Nations statistics, they earn one tenth of the world’s income and own just one hundredth of the world’s property.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is, however, encouraged by President Mills’s promise to ensure that women form 40 per cent of all his appointees.
While we battle the odds that stand in the way of women’s emancipation, the DAILY GRAPHIC joins the global community in wishing our women a happy International Women’s Day.
We hope the years ahead will see a marked improvement in the status of women in the world in general and in Ghana in particular.