Sexual harassment and advances have been identified as the major teething challenges associated with women in Ghanaian politics in Ghana
This phenomenon has deterred ambitious and potential women leaders from venturing into politics, giving men the majority in decision taking despite efforts by successive governments to bridge this yawning gap
Minister-Designate for Communications and Information, Ursla Owusu Ekuful during her vetting in Parliament stated that the trend will be reversed if these challenges are immediately addressed.
According to her, women constitute majority in the country but have been sidelined from national politics because of societal strings attached to women seeking public positions.
She pontificated that, “fundraising exposes women in politics to all manner of dangers when people make some advances to you merely because you’re going to seek resources to finance your campaign. It is something that we all need to look at and design and fashion our policies to make it easier for women to engage in politics. You end up having to develop very very thick skin and you are labelled as arrogant because you speak your mind”
Madam Ursla added “I think we do ourselves a disservice if you make it impossible for women to also engage in the political life of our country. I’m sure we can all bear witness to the fact that we bring a different perspective to the conversation, we give a lot more back to our Communities, we are caregivers and provide an alternative to the conversations at the table and we’re not at the decision-making table” we represent the majority of the population in this country”.
