A demographic finding from the United Nations Decade for Women (2000)
describes the situation of women in statements such as; “Women constitute half of the
world’s population, perform two-thirds of the world’s work, but receive only
one-third of its income and own less than one–hundredth of its property”.
The situation described above is
generally true for all women globally, but its proportions, dimensions and
effects, in the socio-cultural setting of the women of Northern Ghana, is very
worrisome and thus calls for action in finding ways of removing these
limitations, which are inhibiting the growth of Northern women in their lives
functions.
Women in the area believe they
have the potential to own their own business enterprises and also have the
strong will to grow them to prove their worth in various endeavours, as they
are the major source of labour of their societies.
It is the insistent contention of
women that, giving equal opportunities to women through practical interventions
and policies must be at the heart of initiatives aimed at addressing not only
poverty rates, but also reducing the numerous causative gender disparities in
the distribution of wealth.
Unfortunately, certain negative
traditional and cultural practices continue to limit women and tend to sway
them in their attempt to grow in business as they continue to suffer from male
dominance and abject poverty.
The marriage institution, the traditional system of inheritance and the traditional
leadership system are the main socio-cultural vehicles over which men in the area
do not only have absolute dominance, but also are used as denial, exclusion and
limitation tools to inhibit the growth of women in many life’s functions.
A married woman, who is also a
successful business entrepreneur, owning landed property is a rare phenomenon
in the North. This is because most men out of envy and fear of losing their
respect and power as house-heads will go to the extent of seeking supernatural
powers popularly known in Ghanaian parlance as juju and use it to derail the
business of their wives
In view of the
aforementioned, non-governmental organisation ActionAid-Ghana, with support
from the Dutch government on their Funding Leadership Opportunities for Women
(FLOW) under a project dubbed: “Women Rights to Sustainable Livelihood
Project”, is currently training 115 community facilitators from four
districts in the Northern and Upper East Regions in unpaid care work and time
diaries.
Unpaid care
work is imbued in the African and for that matter the Ghanaian society, since
the creation of man but usually seen as women’s work. It is defined as work
such as caring for mother, father and siblings; working for the community;
cooking and fetching water for the family; cleaning and sweeping the home;
feeding and bathing children among others.
A northern woman preparing shea butter |
According to
statistics from ActionAid, an average Northern woman spends about 70 percent of
her time on house chores or unpaid care work daily, and as a result, majority
of them are denied the opportunity to engage in other income generating
activities or businesses in order to support their families as well as empower
themselves economically.
The NGO
believes the desire for paid work by many women have led to working a ‘double
day’, squeezing leisure time and leading to stress, exhaustion or ‘burnout’
continuously leading to serious implications on their health and their general
wellbeing. Care obligations, it says, also create obstacles to women’s full and
meaningful participation in the public sphere, making it difficult for them to
enter debates at the community level and stand as representatives for local
government.
Unfortunately,
these issues as highlighted above have gained little recognition from
governments and other groups in Ghana. By ignoring unpaid care work in economic
analyses, government and the market assume that unpaid care work is more a
matter of concern for the household and in particular for women in a household,
which is not good for community and family cohesion.
Accordingly, the
training programme of the NGO is expected to have a trickledown effect on 3000
women smallholder farmers from Talensi, Nabdam, Nanumba North and Nanumba South
districts of the Northern and Upper East Regions of Ghana where the project is
being implemented.
The project
aims to empower women to demand more public services from local and national
authorities to fulfill their basic human rights and support their households to
provide better quality care, while saving them time and energy to engage in
other activities. Through this process, the programme seeks to support women’s
individual and collective empowerment.
Speaking to
journalists on the sidelines of one of a series of training workshops in Tamale,
the Project Manager Ms. Azumi Mesuna, said the training programme also aims at
equipping community facilitators and partner staff with knowledge on unpaid
care work and time diaries so that they can engage in effective advocacy at the
community level.
She explained
that, it intends to start changing women’s and men’s beliefs that unpaid care
work is primarily the responsibility of women and girls and that it is not as
valuable as men’s contribution through paid work. “In other words, the time has
come for men to support women in their house chores so that society can do away
with the problem of differentiating roles and responsibilities for men and
women as well as girls and boys”, she emphasised.
Meanwhile, it
is the expectation of ActionAid-Ghana that by the end of the training
programme, community members would have accepted that unpaid care work
negatively impacts on the political and socio-economic development and
contributions of women smallholder farmers and have therefore, resolved to share
unpaid care work with women and children.
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