Women in politics solicit public support for women participation
6th October 2016
Some female political figures are calling for a collective effort to ensure political and economic equity beyond the passing of the affirmative action bill into law.
They believe passing the bill into law alone will not be enough to guarantee gender equity.
The Affirmative Action Bill seeks to end discriminating against women in social, political and economic spheres of endeavour.
Out of 133 women who contested in the parliamentary election in 102 constituencies in 2012, only 29 secured seats in the legislature.
Advocates attribute the trend to some misconceptions about the capability of women.
Catherine Afeku, Member of Parliament for Evalue Gwira in the Western Region believes more investment is needed to building capacity of women to take advantage of potential opportunities of the bill when it is passed.
“We have to help young girls who have an interest in politics, nurture them and help build their capacity”, she said.
Meanwhile, National Women’s Organizer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Vivian Kakie Tetteh wants skill training in place for females who are unable to attain higher heights in the academic field.
These sentiments were expressed at a session of the 2016 Youth Debate Series in Kumasi.
Organizers say the debate platform is meant to address political gender imbalance and also encourage the youth to take voting decisions based on policies.
“Mostly when events of this nature are organised the men in politics are the ones who get the opportunity but we decided to limit it to women for them to speak about their parties”, President of African Heights Foundation, Dennis Armah, said.
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