THE PLIGHT OF THE YOUNG GHANAIAN WOMAN


The young Ghanaian woman faces a lot of challenges in their lifetime. These challenges begin right from birth through puberty to death, for instance when a woman is in labour and goes to have a baby they would ask, “what did she deliver?”-”A human being?” And if the response is yes, it means the baby is a male – what would you call this?The young Ghanaian girl therefore right from birth faces discrimination and this continues to puberty. She has to deal with so many traditional rites to fulfill the rites of passage such as puberty rites to initiate her into adulthood, in some cultures the young Ghanaian woman has to go through female genital mutilation (FGM) to complete the process afterwards she is then introduced to marriage. Even at marriage this discrimination still continues, though young men in Ghana can choose who to marry and when to marry, the young woman does not enjoy this privilege, women as young as 14 years are sometimes betrothed to a man of about 45 or 60 years and she has no choice but to accept the offer, the young Ghanaian woman is trained to accept decisions made on her behalf and to sacrifice her future comfort to the benefit of her family of origin and the family she will marry into. After all, who will listen to her when she complains? Where will she run to? What do we call this? discrimination or equal rights? We sometimes wonder if Ghanaians are aware of the UN Universal Declaration of human rights Article 16(2) that states categorically “marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. To complete the passage of life, even in death the young Ghanaian woman still goes through discrimination.

Discrimination against the young Ghanaian woman engulfs all aspect of her life but lets consider education, job opportunities, human rights violations and gender based violence.

Since Ghana’s independence in 1957, citizens are entitled to equal opportunities regarding rights, privileges, and duties enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.These rights and privileges include right to education, but does this really exist? Do men and women especially young men and young women have equal opportunities regarding education, jobs and decision making in society?

While the male is encouraged to study hard and excel in professions such as medicine, engineering, computing, law, among others, the girl who is privileged to be enrolled in school, is oriented right from childhood to choose vocations such as teaching, nursing, catering, secretarialship and the like, these courses take a shorter training period compared to the ones ‘ascribed’ for men. The notion behind this is for the girl to fulfill her ultimate duty in society - to get married and have children. Such situations usually occur where there are scarce resources in the home. Beside medicine, engineering, computing and the like, are considered too technical for a female. In some cases girls would have to drop out of school to either assist her mother at home or sell in the market to support the family or marry so that her dowry (some items given by the groom to the bride’s family) could be used to sustain her family and see her male siblings through school (afterall education is the right of a male).

Access to Jobs

Despite all these challenges a Ghanaian girl faces in her educational ladder, the few ones who excel especially from the rural areas have a problem getting jobs.
Another huddle that the young Ghanaian woman has to cross is the area of decision making.
The Ghanaian society is mainly male dominated and decision-making regarding the welfare of the home ad community at large is often considered a male business. The girl child in the Ghanaian society, is oriented to be subject to men and allow decisions to be made on their behalf hence they hardly have a representation in parliament like their male counterparts. They face a lot of impediments in their efforts to change this situation, sometimes these hindrances come from older women who feel that these few young girls who dare to change situations are competing with them (older women in decision making). In some cases, some men might be willing to help her find her way to the top but then that ‘help’ comes with a tag- her pants MUST be inspected. If this ‘pull me down’ syndrome continues how would the young Ghanaian woman ever get to the top? If she has to sleep with every Tom, Dick and Harry, what would be left of her self esteem and her pride as a woman, what would be left of her natural treasure? Hey, maybe we have ignored or never noticed Article 27 (3) of the 1992 constitution that states ‘women shall be guaranteed equal rights to training and promotion without impediments from any person.
Even though we have a few women in politics and decision making we hardly have a single young woman among these few women decision makers and politicians. Out of the 230 parliamentarians, 25 are women. Women account for less than 10% of the people in public office, 7% are assembly members. There are also 30 committees in Parliament, of which 2 women chair two committees. The finance and the gender and children committee. When will the young woman in Ghana be given the opportunity to be part of decision making that concerns her?


Human rights violations

Under chapter five of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, every person in Ghana whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour religion, creed or gender is entitled to fundamental human rights and freedoms. Inspite of this, there has been several reports of human rights violations among young women in Ghana.

In Ghana, 20% of teenage girls drop out of school or fail to finish exams because of teenage pregnancy. The girls are either dismissed from school or not allowed to write exams. Also, they face stigmatization and discrimination from their peers and society making it extremely difficult for them to continue their education. A lot of girls ‘drop out’ voluntarily because of the shame and disgrace. Schoolgirls should not be encouraged to get pregnant while in school, however if they do, should they be denied their right to education? Why that is only the girls get penalized? What happens to the boys who got them pregnant? Are they punished in the same measure as the girls?

In the Kassena Nankana District of the Upper East Region of Ghana, part of the widowhood rites is that two people would pour hot and cold water simultaneously on the widow and if the hot water gets on the body first and she gets burnt, then she is alleged to have been unfaithful to her husband in his life time. In other areas young women had to continue the family lineage by marrying their late husband’s brothers. This places the widow at a high risk of contacting sexually transmitted diseases including the HIV virus. These are all violations of her fundamental human rights. The Widows and Orphans Ministry started in the Upper East Region in 1993 was established out of the woes young and older women go through during widowhood rites. It would be good to have such ministries in other areas to decrease the plight of the young widow.

Gender based violence

According to article six of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana titled; the directive principles of state policy, session 35(1), “Ghana shall be a democratic state dedicated to the realization of freedom of justice; and accordingly, sovereignty resides in the people of Ghana from whom the government derives all its powers and authority through the constitution”.


Gender based violence is an issue that has to be worked with all stakeholders. It is synonymous to the young Ghanaian woman because we live it but we are tired and want to fight this menace with all the little strength left in us.
Violence and the threat of violence is a fear that is experienced by every woman whether young or old however the young woman is very vulnerable because she has to make a living, develop her capacity and live like her male counterparts. In the process of doing this she goes through a lot of challenges, which ranges from: physical; psychological; economic; sexual; and traditional practices.
Anytime any of these violations take place in the domestic setting it is domestic violence. According to the media over 90% of domestic violence cases are women and children.
Domestic violence is targeted on women because of the inequality of the positions of men and women in the society.

Taking these statistics into account, how can the concerns of the young Ghanaian woman get addressed if she is not represented in decision-making tables? If men within the ages of 28 ad 35 years can be parliamentarians, district chief executive, and district assembly members, why can’t young women in these same age group be given that privilege?

There is currently no law in Ghana to address domestic violence. The domestic violence bill yet to be introduced to parliament in Ghana is intended to provide a legal framework for addressing the menace of domestic violence. There is the need for a law to address domestic violence cases because there are gaps in the current law used in addressing such cases; currently the law in Ghana is inadequate for dealing with crime of domestic nature.

As young Ghanaian women our wish is to see the Domestic Violence Bill Passed into an act of Parliament; to see the Right to Information bill passed and to see the society accept aspiring young Ghanaian women take up decision making positions to help spearhead a movement for change and contribute our quota to the development of the nation.
This would help promote gender equality, gender justice and empower the young Ghanaian woman to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by 2015.

By: Cynthia Delali Noviewoo( Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Africa, Office
Joyce Apoasaan Jambeidu(Center for Information Technologies Researches and Development, Tamale(CITRED)Both are members of the Young Women Leadership and knowledge training institute, West Africa Anglophone branch, an initiative by the African Women Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights( AWOMI).