Today is International Women’s Day. It is a day set aside to draw attention to the need to continue efforts in support of gender equity and equality. While society recognizes the progress achieved over the years, it acknowledges there is still work to be done.
International Women’s Day offer countries like Ghana two things – a) an opportunity to reflect on efforts to advance the cause of women; and b) a chance to renew its commitments to women.
The theme for this year’s celebration is #AccelerateAction. It is a simple call on everyone to join in efforts to end gender discrimination and harmful stereotypes that place obstacles in the path of women.
I believe we all want a world where there is both gender equality and equity.
As we celebrate the day, let us reflect on our own collective attitudes on gender issues. To join efforts in support of #AccelerateAction requires having positive attitudes on questions and issues that affect women disproportionately in our country.
The question is, as a collective, what do Ghanaians say about gender issues? For insights, I draw on publicly available data from the most recent Afrobarometer survey (Round 10, 2024).
What Do Our Attitudes Look Like?
On the question of leadership, a strong majority (78%) of Ghanaians held the view that “women should have the same chance of being elected to political office as men.” There was a gender gap on this question – among men, 73% compared to 83% among women held this view. Permit me to draw contrast here. Although the overall percentages seem high, it must be noted that when the question was first asked in Round 3 of the survey (2005), 83% held this view. In addition, the gender gap then on this question was five percentage points – 86% (women) and 81% (men). This means over time the gender gap on leadership roles for women has doubled.
On the question of believing the complains of women and girls, when asked “in your community, how likely is it that people will believe women or girls if they complain about being discriminated against or harassed in schools, workplaces, or other public spaces?” only 31% of Ghanaians responded, “very likely” with another 30% saying “somewhat likely.” There were no significant gender gaps as only 33% of men, and 30% of women felt it was “very likely” for the woman or girl to be believe by their community should they complain about the issues described above.
On the question of public harassment of women, when asked “how frequently do the following things occur in your community- women are sexually harassed in public places such as in markets, on the streets, or in public transport?” overall, 59% answered “never”. Here as well, there was no significant gender gap as 60% (men) and 58% (women) answered “never.”
On the question of protection by the police and courts, when asked “do you think the police and courts in this country are doing enough to protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment in schools, workplaces, and public spaces, or do they need to do more?” overall, only 26% of Ghanaians said these two institutions are “doing enough.” Among men and women, the percentage (26%) responding “doing enough” was the same.
On the question of barriers to women employment, Ghanaians identified the following as the top three barriers – employers prefer to hire men (25%); lack of childcare (18%); and lack of remote or flexible work arrangements (17%). Among men, the top three reasons were – employers prefer to hire men (25%); lack of remote or flexible work arrangements (19%) and women lack the necessary education or skills (15%). Among women, the top three reasons were – employers prefer to hire men (27%); lack of childcare (20%); and women lack the necessary education or skills (17%).
There are notable differences when each of the six barriers in the survey are examined closely. For example, among those who say women face no barriers to employment, 60% were men compared to 40% who were women. Another example, among those who believe lack of remote or flexible work arrangements is a barrier 58% were men while 42% were women.
Among those who believe lack of childcare is a barrier, 57% were women, while 43% were men. Among those who say employers prefer to hire men, 53% were women, while 47% were men.
#AccelerateAction
Undoubtedly, there are challenges which must be addressed. Thankfully, last year, parliament passed the Affirmative Action Act, 2024 (Gender Equity) which sets out comprehensive goals and a timeline for achieving gender equality and equity. Both public and private sector organizations are required to take specific measures to make this happen.
Let us, collectively, #AccelerateAction on the Affirmative Action Act, 2024.
John Osae-Kwapong (Ph.D) is a Democracy and Development (D&D) Fellow at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the Project Director at The Democracy Project.
