Source: GhanaWeb
Women organisers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Convention People's Party (CPP) are advocating reforms to their party constitutions to allow for more women to seek political office.
Such reforms, according to the women organisers, must also include the amendment of their constitutions to ensure that more women contested in their parties' strongholds.
At a two-day capacity-building programme for female politicians of the two political parties, organised by the Women's Academy for Africa (WAFA), West Africa, the women said such reforms would promote gender equality and active participation of more women in the democratic processes.
WAFA is a network for socialist and social democratic women, set up in 2011 following a meeting in Ghana in 2009, which was organised by the Labour Party, in the United Kingdom, to support a regional network that would promote social democracy.
The Chairperson of the CPP, Samia Yaba Nkrumah, who was the guest speaker at the opening of the training, said it was important to create the environment for fair opportunities to enable women to achieve their full potential.
"Although we want things to change in our country, if women do not become decision makers, very little will change. We do not have to bear the consequences of the decisions of others," she said.
Samia Nkrumah urged women to be strong, self-reliant and humble, saying, "Do not have big egos as that goes against womanhood. Women of Ghana, be strong and dignified. Act as unifiers. Stand up and be counted."
The Deputy Chair of WAFA, West Africa, Ms Anita De Sousa, who is also the National Women's Organiser of the NDC, stated that women faced several obstacles in their attempt to participate in politics.
Structural barriers stemming from discrimination, she said, limited women's options to run for office while women, compared to men, had less resources at their disposal to effectively take up political leadership.
"We are the majority in the population yet only few of us make it to the decision-making positions politically. The laws must be changed. We have to rise and let our men know that if women are not put up in our strongholds we will not vote for men who contest such seats," she said.
The Commissioner of WAFA, West Africa, Hajia Hamdata Ibrahim Haruna, who is also the National Women's Organiser of the CPP, in her welcome address, said the academy was sponsored by the Labour Party and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) in the United Kingdom.
Hajia Haruna said the two organisations currently funded the Botswana Congress Party, Social Democratic Front of Cameroun, FRELIMO of Mozambique, African Nation Congress of South Africa, and Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania.
Apart from the CPP and the NDC, other social democrats in Africa, including the Zimbabwean Movements for Democratic Change and the Social Democratic Party of Uganda also receive sponsorship from the Labour Party and the WFD.
The objective, she said, was to empower women in Africa to support sustainable development by participating actively in all democratic processes of their nations.