The status of women in Ghana and their roles in Ghanaian society has changed over the past few decades. There has been a slow increase in the political participation of Ghanaian women throughout history. Women are given equal rights under the Constitution of Ghana, yet disparities in education, employment, and health for women remain prevalent. Additionally, women have much less access to resources than men in Ghana do. Ghanaian women in rural and urban areas face slightly different challenges. Throughout Ghana, female-headed households are increasing.
Multiple forms of violence against women still exist in Ghana. In recent years, feminist organizations and women's rights groups have increased. Efforts to bring about gender equality continue to grow in Ghana. The government of Ghana has signed on to numerous international goals and conventions to enhance women's rights in Ghana.
Politics Although women are guaranteed political participation rights under the 1992 Ghana Constitution, there is a lack of female representation in government. There has never been a female president in Ghana. In 2012, 19 women occupied seats in Parliament, while 246 men occupied the rest of the seats. In 2017, women's representation in Parliament increased, with 37 women elected. However, Ghanaian women still make up only 13.5% of Parliament. In the courts, the Chief Justice is Sophia Akuffo, the second woman to be appointed to this position. The first woman to be appointed as Chief Justice was Georgina Wood. Additionally, women only make up a small percentage of the total judges in high and Supreme Courts. In 2009, 23% of Supreme Court judges were women.
There has been a slow increase of women in Parliament since the adoption of the multiparty system in 1992. Ghana has taken multiple steps to increase equality in the political sphere. For example, the government signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW). Many institutions in Ghana work to advance women's rights and welfare issues. Women's groups and activists in Ghana are demanding gender policies and programmes to improve the livelihood of women. Additionally, the government has a ministry dedicated to women, and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection focuses on policy formation on issues that pertain specifically to women and children. Despite the efforts of NGOs and political parties, female participation in politics in Ghana remains low.
The lack of political participation from women in Ghana can be attributed to longstanding cultural norms. The traditional belief that women in Ghana should not have responsibilities outside the home contributes to the deficiency of women in politics. Leadership is also a skill that is traditionally associated with boys and men. When women in Ghana take leadership positions, they can face discrimination.
Family structure Marriage
Polygyny refers to marriages in which men are permitted to have more than one wife at the same time. In precolonial times, polygyny was encouraged, especially for wealthy men. Polygamy was traditionally seen as a source of labor for men, as multiple wives allowed for more unpaid labor. In patrilineal societies, dowry received from marrying off daughters was also a traditional means for fathers to accumulate additional wealth. Today, the percentage of women in polygynous marriages in rural areas (23.9%) is almost double that of women in urban areas (12.4%). The age group with the most women in polygynous marriages is 45–49, followed by the 15–19 age group and the 40–44 group. Rates of polygynous marriages decrease as education level and wealth level increase.
In traditional societies, marriage under customary law was often arranged or agreed upon by the fathers and other senior kinsmen of the prospective bride and bridegroom. This type of marriage served to link two families/groups together in social relationships; hence, marriage within the ethnic group and in the immediate locality was encouraged. The age at which marriage was arranged varied among ethnic groups, but men generally married women somewhat younger than they were. Some of the marriages were even arranged by the families long before the girl attained puberty. In these matters, family considerations outweighed personal ones – a situation that further reinforced the subservient position of the wife.
The alienation of women from the acquisition of wealth, even in conjugal relationships, was strengthened by traditional living arrangements. Among matrilineal groups, such as the Akan, married women continued to reside at their maternal homes. Meals prepared by the wife would be carried to the husband at his maternal house. In polygynous situations, visitation schedules would be arranged. The separate living patterns reinforced the idea that each spouse is subject to the authority of a different household head, and because spouses are always members of different lineages, each is ultimately subject to the authority of the senior men of his or her lineage. The wife, as an outsider in the husband's family, would not inherit any of his property, other than that granted to her by her husband as gifts in token appreciation of years of devotion. The children from this matrilineal marriage would be expected to inherit from their mother's family.
The Dagombas, on the other hand, inherit from their fathers. In these patrilineal societies where the domestic group includes the man, his wife or wives, their children, and perhaps several dependent relatives, the wife was brought into closer proximity to the husband and his paternal family. Her male children also assured her of more direct access to the wealth accumulated in the marriage with her husband.
Today, marriage dynamics generally vary between rural and urban areas. Polygyny is more common in rural areas, and a married woman is usually supported by large groups of relatives as well as co-wives. Urban Ghana has generally adopted a more "Western" practice of marriage. The urban woman is held more responsible for choosing her own husband, as it is not based on lineage or her family's interests. Furthermore, the urban woman is seen as more of a partner than as a minor, as she would be in many rural settings. That being said, it can often be harder for the urban woman to address grievances or leave her husband because of that responsibility and lack of familial support that rural women often have.
Ghana’s child protection law, the Children’s Act, prohibits child marriage. Nevertheless, data from 2011 shows that 6% of girls nationwide were married before the age of 15. Between 2002 and 2012, 7% of adolescent females (aged 15–19) were currently married. Most of these women live in the Volta, Western, and Northern regions, and they generally live in rural areas regardless of region.
Familial roles Women in premodern Ghanaian society were seen as bearers of children, farmers and retailers of produce. Within the traditional sphere, the childbearing ability of women was explained as the means by which lineage ancestors were allowed to be reborn. Barrenness was, therefore, considered the greatest misfortune. Given the male dominance in traditional society, some economic anthropologists have explained a female's ability to reproduce as the most important means by which women ensured social and economic security for themselves, especially if they bore male children.David Owusu-Ansah, David. "The Position of Women", in A Country Study: Ghana (La Verle Berry, editor). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (November 1994). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Rates of female-headed households are on the rise in Ghana. The number of female-headed households who are either widowed or divorced has also risen over time. Contrary to worldwide findings that female poverty is correlated with higher rates of female-headed households, findings from the Ghana Living Standards Survey indicate that female-headed households may not actually experience higher poverty than male-headed households. This is because reasons that households are headed by females differ across the country. Marital status is a significant factor in understanding differences in poverty rates. For example, widows are the group of female-headed households that exhibit the highest rates of poverty. Especially in polygynous cases, not all women live in the same household as their husband. Therefore, female-headed households headed by married women are best-off in terms of poverty, followed by divorced females, and widowed females.
Social norms and assigned roles for women is one of Ghana’s main issues. There are social standards that women in Africa have to follow, depending on their culture and religion. There are other factors which compound a woman’s social norms. For example, president's wives in Africa are required to be present at official functions. Additionally, if a woman is unsuccessful in providing a son, her husband might take another wife. A way to fix social norm is by making school enrollment higher for women due to higher knowledge of the topic, and higher positioning of women throughout the continent. Being able to change expectations put onto women and rules that cultures have, is difficult due to having to change the mindset of either a culture, a religion or a government.
Overall, women in female-headed households bear more household and market work than men do in male-headed households, largely because the female head of household is usually the only adult of working age or ability. Men are usually able to distribute work with a female spouse in male-headed households, as most men in male-headed households are married. Additionally, the amount of domestic work performed by women when living with or without a spouse does not vary, leading to the conclusion that males generally make little to no significant contribution to domestic work. Further, women who are the heads of household generally own about 12 fewer hectares of land than male heads of household. The disparity in land ownership increases as wealth increases.
Family size In their Seven Roles of Women: Impact of Education, Migration, and Employment on Ghanaian Mother (International Labour Office, 1987), Christine Oppong and Katherine Abu recorded field interviews in Ghana that confirmed a traditional view of procreation. Citing figures from the Ghana fertility survey of 1983, the authors concluded that about 60 percent of women in the country preferred to have large families of five or more children. The largest number of children per woman was found in the rural areas where the traditional concept of family was strongest. Uneducated urban women also had large families.
On the average, urbanized, educated, and employed women had fewer children. On the whole, all the interviewed groups saw childbirth as an essential role for women in society, either for the benefits it bestows upon the mother or for the honour it brings to her family. The security that procreation provided was greater in the case of rural and uneducated women. By contrast, the number of children per mother declined for women with post-elementary education and outside employment; with guaranteed incomes and little time at their disposal in their combined roles as mothers and employees, the desire to procreate declined.
Education