KB Asante: Voice From Afar column
Affirmative action is not the answer
Women have great disad-vantages all over the world. It is a man’s world in many countries and this impedes the progress of the women as well as that of the nation in a fast-changing world. The situation is recognised by the international community and concerted efforts are made to remedy the situation.
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But on International Women’s Day we should not focus mainly on issues of concern in the larger world. We should examine our own situation in depth, assess how far we have come and decide on the next move in the march for the complete emancipation of women. We cannot do what we could and should do if we sheepishly follow the international agenda.
I served on committees of the UN General Assembly in the seventies and was surprised at researchers’ reports about the plight of women in the so-called developing countries.
There were statements about women not being able to open bank accounts or own land in ‘developing countries’. Many delegates were surprised when I said that Ghanaian women were in the forefront of the economy.
They, therefore, needed economic support, not in the legislative domain, but in more sophisticated banking practices. They and the men also needed change in mental attitudes, I said.
Of course, knowledge about the problems of women across the world has greatly improved. But what is done and what particular problems are addressed now are greatly influenced by the objectives and views of organisations greatly interested in particular issues.
If Ghana is therefore to solve the gender issues which weigh her down she should not simply follow the bandwagon and promote solutions to the problems which though of some importance to her, should not be given priority in the face of other burning or deep-seated issues.
It would be good to have more women in parliament and in other institutions. But how many women are in the British parliament whose practices we try to emulate? And how many women Prime Ministers have the British Parliament chosen?
And what have they done that could not be done by the men? And why do we not have more women parliamentarians in Ghana? More importantly, do we need them over there to show that we have many women in parliament?
Affirmative action to have more women in parliament and in certain areas of public life or institutions will only gloss over problems. In fact, it will affirm the unadmitted belief in the inferiority of women. I believe that women are not inferior and if they are under-represented in some areas we should find out why and remove the impediments to their progress.
The other day, I listened to a discussion on the GBC ‘Talking Point’ programme. It is called a ‘show’. I hate that word. We should not be apologetic about being serious now and again and indulge in ‘shows’ all the time.
To continue, I was surprised that a leading woman appeared to suggest that ‘Beijing’ (meaning the conference in China’s capital in the eighties) heralded the dawn of measures to promote the rights and interests of women.
Our foreign-oriented mental attitudes should not blind us to our history, what we have done and what remains to be done in Ghana. Our women had rights and obligations but life was generally loaded against them. Some Ghanaian intellectuals and the Missionaries spoke and worked against some of the bad practices, attitudes and beliefs and there were some changes for the better.
But the belief that girls did not need formal education was strong. The great James Kwegir Aggrey, therefore, vigorously promoted the education of girls. He postulated that if you educated a man you educated an individual but if you educated a girl, you educated a family and a nation. Achimota College gave vigorous expression to this belief. It became a co-educational Boarding School which gave particular attention to girls and women.
Achimota has achieved a lot for women. But we should find out what it did not succeed in doing and how we can use formal education to empower women. Already some Girls’ Secondary Schools are doing very well. Wesley Girls School has given us three Ministers of State today. They were not appointed because of affirmative action.
They were promoted because they were good. If on intellectual or professional grounds I am against what the Minister of Education is saying or doing, I will take her to task. I will not be inhibited by the fact that she is a woman. The woman was a Vice-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellors are not appointed on sentiment but on competence and achievement.
Ghanaian women have shown their capacity for the highest academic offices.
Our women have shown that they do not need any pampering. We should remove any obstacles which inhibit their progress and they would perform. An obvious one is the problem of childbirth.
When a woman wants to rise up the ladder or engage in higher professional studies, maternity leave and other institutional measures may need refinement. Some business houses and organisations, however, find maternity leave disruptive and the progress of women is thereby impeded. We should find more effective answers to these problems.
What we should tackle now and ruthlessly are practices which injure or degrade women. Putting pepper into the eyes of widows should be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law.
It is a criminal offence. And so is Trokosi. Some of my learned friends do not agree with me. They think it is part of the culture of the people. But to me the practice has no place in our modern culture. Young girls cannot be enslaved to old men because of what their elders have done. We do not need the Swiss or any organisation to get rid of the practice ‘amicably’. We should rid ourselves of such obsolete and degrading customs.
A major challenge facing the advocates of the rights of women is the mind-set. It is a complicated one. In many areas of the country men revere their mothers. They also love their daughters. But they molest their wives! This strange behaviour has to be changed. There is also the idea that girls do not need as much formal education as boys. In the forties when the idea of girls secondary education appeared to be gaining ground, a high-life was composed which went like this:
‘I take my money marry Awula (educated girl)
Awula can’t cook (does not know kitchen affairs).
It was popular and promoted a negative attitude towards the education of women. The attitude has not completely changed even though in the major towns educated couples work and manage the home and ‘kitchen’ together. But education is generally perceived as alienation from ‘womanly’ and customary behaviour. And in the villages many mothers do not teach ‘kitchen affairs’ to their educated daughters.
Education is the key to women’s freedom. It is no exaggeration that true and proper education should deepen understanding of customary practices and culture. Women do have roles to play in many of our societies and they perform creditably. Traditionally, the men do not decide unilaterally as many believe. Improper education alienates women from their roots and leads to the disrespect of the untutored men. We forget our roots and fail to understand ourselves. In the circumstances, no amount of Affirmative Action can make both men and women happy and free them to work for family and national progress.