Book on notable women psychologists in Ghana launched
A book that chronicles the life and experiences of notable women psychologists who have been at the forefront of psychology in Ghana has been launched in Accra.
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Titled, “Women in Psychology in Ghana: an autobiographical Collection”, the 344-page book was edited by Professor Charity Sylvia Akotia, a social and community psychologist, and Dr Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie, a senior lecturer, both at the Department of Psychology of the University of Ghana, also highlights the failures, successes, anecdotes and serendipity in pursuing career paths in psychology as practitioners and academics.
The book is in two parts - the first part focused on the life and career of eight older and eminent women psychologists who contributed in various ways to psychology in Ghana.
They are the late Dr Araba Sefa-Dedeh, who is referred to as the foremother of clinical psychology in Ghana; Prof. Angela Lamensdorf Ofori-Atta, Mrs Rachel Phillips, Prof. Frances Emily Owusu-Ansah of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Ama De-Graft Aikins, Dr Epiphania Emefa Bonsi, Dr Dinah Baah-Odoom and Prof. Akotia.
The second part of the book, which tells the life of six contemporary women in psychology in the country, captures the life story and careers of Dr Margaret Amankwah-Poku; Dr Angela Anarfi Gyasi-Gyamerah, Dr Erica Danfrekua Dickson, Prof. Abigail Opoku Mensah, Dr Annabella Osei-Tutu and Prof. Joana Salifu Yendork.
Throwing more light on the book in an interview with the Daily Graphic, Prof. Akotia mentioned one of the motivations for the publication of the book to be to document and preserve the contributions of women in psychology, explaining that they had noticed that a lot of people knew about men behind psychology in Ghana and elsewhere but the situation was not the same for women.
Motivation
“But we know that women have also contributed and so one of the motivations is to have this collection where women talk about their own contribution to psychology, how they also added their voice and the various things that they did to promote this discipline in Ghana,” she explained.
Prof. Akotia, who since 1992, had lectured psychology, mentioned some of the issues captured in the 14-chapter book, including the childhood of the 14 women psychologists featured in the book, the socialisation that they went through, what happened in their homes, their pre-university and university education, their postgraduate education, as well as their contributions to psychology in terms of research, practice and teaching.
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“These women, in documenting what they went through, their experiences, they identified the challenges they faced along the line, their successes as well and how they navigated their experiences to be who they are currently.
So basically, these women have all contributed in one way or the other in expanding the frontiers of psychology in Ghana,” she said.
Challenges
She mentioned the major challenge that cut across the writings of all of them was juggling family life as wives and mothers with education, training and career demands and how they navigated through them.
On whether their gender in any way affected them in their career path, she said interestingly, most of them said they did not face any discrimination because of their gender and added that their male counterparts were supportive and accommodating.
She advised all, especially the younger generation, to get a copy of the book to read so that they could also calve a way for themselves.
Launching
The book has since been launched and it was done by the two editors and the publisher, Sub-Saharan Publishers.
It was reviewed by Prof. Mavis Dako-Gyeke.