Joycelyn Twum-Barima appointed first female Plant Manager of ABL
In an environment of men domination, Joycelyn Twum-Barima, through determination and hard work, rose to become the First Female Plant Manager for Accra Brewery Limited.
The male-dominated engineering field rarely employs women to take up such a position.
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As a Plant Manager, Mrs Twum-Barima is in charge of manning and maintaining the production plant, and all employees in the supply chain.
Mrs Twum-Barima is a product of the University of Cape Coast where she read Chemistry and the University of Ghana Business School where she pursued an Executive Master’s in business administration.
She has 17 years of working experience, occupying leadership positions in Quality Control, Packaging and the brewing departments.
“It hasn’t been an easy journey, but an exciting one. I started from the very bottom. I came in to do my internship and wanted a five-month internship but I had only three months,” Mrs Twum-Barima told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Journey
During her internship, she recalled being limited to doing only administrative work as it was deemed that the core technical duties at the brewing department were meant for men.
Not satisfied with just doing administrative work, Mrs Twum-Barima sacrificed weekends and public holidays to learn how to operate the plant.
“When I entered, I realised that it was a man’s world. I was one of the two females in the technical department. It was all men's affair here, even secretaries were men.
“In the brewing department, where I was doing my internship, I was limited to just doing administrative work but it wasn’t fulfilling for me.
“So I approached the operators and I challenged myself to be coming every weekend and public holidays to learn from the operators. I did that and I managed to learn how to run the plant myself,” she said.
However, just like many women, Mrs Twum-Barima said she was constantly told she would not secure a job in her field of work as a woman.
She said with determination, persistence and hard work she secured a job at ABL.
“I feel challenged, I feel that a big responsibility has been given to me to make sure that women are put in high positions; and it all depends on how I perform.
“I’m looking at how being the first female in this position will create the opportunity for more women to have higher positions,” she said.
Higher positions
Touching on calls and advocacy for women to be considered for higher positions in all areas, Mrs Twum-Barima advised women to prepare to live up to expectations.
“I don’t believe in gender, I believe the call should be about intelligence, performance and results. Young women must be resilient, persistent and fight for their goals despite some barriers they may face.
“Life is a journey but sometimes young women want to get to the top very quickly, to which some resort to doing all sorts of things.