Chapter 9

Women and Good Governance in Society and Community Radio in Ghana

By Ruby N. Amable

The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana recognizes the equality of all persons and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex and education, among many others. Thus women in Ghana are recognized under the law as having equal rights as men. It is no surprise then that the current Chief Justice is a woman while the Commissioner of the Immigration Service, the Government Statistician and the Deputy Commissioner of Police are women.

Since the early 1990s and thereafter, laws and policies have been put in place to enhance the status of the Ghanaian woman. For example, the Criminal Code Amendment Act was amended to include provisions to protect women from harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and widowhood rites. The Women and Juvenile Unit, which was recently renamed Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit, was also established under the Ghana Police Service. Other policy frameworks in place include Girl Child Education and the Science, Mathematics and Technology clinics for girls during the long school vacations. More recently, the Domestic Violence Act of 2007 was passed as the result of close to six years of intense and sustained advocacy by a coalition of women’s and other rights-based groups.

Apart from the national guarantees, Ghana is also a signatory to various international conventions and protocols that recognize the rights of women. The main one is CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women).

Despite the well-intentioned laws and other efforts, research at the national, regional and micro-level indicate that broad-based participation of women in community development and governance is still minimal, especially in comparison with their numbers.

According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey of 2000, 44.1 per cent of women as opposed to 21.1 per cent of men have no formal education. At the higher level, the gap is even larger, with only 2.7 per cent women as compared to 15.8 per cent of men having the higher levels of education needed for employment in the formal sector.

Factors such as poverty, early marriage and teenage pregnancy have also contributed to an elevated school drop-out rate among girls and prevented a large number of females from attaining a higher education.

Religion, cultural norms and the lack of economic power, together with the low level of female education, have contributed to the low status of women in Ghanaian society.

Women in decision making

Despite the statistics, women have played, and continue to play, pivotal roles in the political, social and economic life of Ghana. During the struggle for self-determination, women, including those who were uneducated in formal terms, struggled and fought alongside their male counterparts in the fight against colonial rule. One, Yaa Asantewaa, has become a revered figure for taking up leadership in battle where men would not dare.

After the attainment of independence in 1957, the government of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah introduced an affirmative action program for women. Among other features, this enabled the inclusion of women in the national legislature in recognition of the frontline role women played in the struggle toward independence. However, in contemporary Ghana, 50 years after independence, the ratio of women to men at the national and local government levels and in the public and corporate sectors does not reflect that of a nation where over 51 per cent of the population is comprised of women.

Currently, at the national level, only 21 out of the 230-member legislature are women, while in a Cabinet of 19, only three of the ministers are women. Furthermore, there are only three women in the 24-member Council State, the constitutional body that advises the President of the Republic. It is worth noting that these three are among the 14 members of the council who were appointed by the president. An electoral college representing the 10 regions of the country elects the remaining 10 members.

The situation is no different at the local government level, which is the lowest level of decision making and is seen to be closer to the ordinary person. There are only three women Presiding Members in the 128 rural District Assemblies in the country. Out of the 138 District Chief Executives, only 12 are women. Although the percentage of women who contested the election increased substantially during the 2006 district-level elections, Ghana’s Institute of Local Government Studies says only 11 per cent of the members of the district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies are women.

Besides the poor educational level and other factors mentioned earlier, it is believed that the low level of women’s participation in governance at both the national and local levels has been largely due to the perception that politics is dirty and better left to men, and because the demands of the traditional roles of the woman as a mother and wife. Most husbands are widely known to be unsupportive of their wives’ political ambitions.

Women in the media in Ghana

In 2006, a survey was conducted by Women Media and Change, an Accra-based NGO, on the extent to which gender is incorporated into the work of eight selected media houses operating in the country. The houses include the public broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the two public owned print media, two privately owned electronic and one print media, the Media Foundation for West Africa and the Ghana Journalists Association, which is the umbrella body of media practitioners in the country. The survey indicated that all eight organizations view gender as an integral part of development and freedom of expression and support the need for equal opportunities for both women and men. However, all the organizations reflect greater representation of men at all levels of their structure. Seven out of 10 people in the the organizations could not give any examples of any gender-specific work they have done while most of them did not consider gender as an issue that should form part of their organizational planning policy.

Community radio, women and governance in Ghana

By contrast, in recognition of the factors that militate against the effective participation of women in all sectors of decision making and governance, GCRN has in place gender-sensitive policies aimed at promoting equal participation of both sexes at all levels of the community radio structure.

Currently, eight community radio stations are on the air in Ghana. A board representing their listening communities governs the community radio stations in Ghana, while personnel are made up of staff and volunteers from the community. A survey of six of the eight community radio stations conducted in April 2007 showed the gender composition of the boards and staff of the community radio stations as follows:

Table 1: Composition of Boards of Community Radio Stations in Ghana

Table 2: Composition of Volunteers of Community Radio Stations in Ghana

Though the number of women compared to men may look small, in considering the rural location of these stations, these stations must be commended for the efforts they are making to bring in women. In their locations, the number of literate women is much lower than in the urban areas, and the traditional attitudes and practices that keep women in the background are deeply entrenched. At the same time, women in these rural areas have little time because they are expected, in addition to their household roles, to contribute to the household economy, usually through farming and informal trade.

The women staff members are not in low-key positions, as is found in many organizations in such rural settings, but are in management and key operational positions such as news production. In fact, two of the eight community radio stations – RAP and Simli – are currently headed by women. The involvement of women in senior positions gives them a strong voice in determining budgetary allocations and how and what programs are to be run. Through the strong involvement of women in management, efforts are made to produce programs tailored specifically to the needs of women and the youth. The women at the stations have also become mentors to other women and young females who are encouraged to try their hands at radio while in school and many of them have become community producers after completion of their formal education. This is particularly so in the case of Radio Ada, which has separatedprograms for women and the women, based on felt needs, design such programs. An example is the fishmonger’s program on Radio Ada.

Community radio in Ghana has also given women involved in the sector the opportunity to enhance their skills to bring them up to par with their male counterparts. This has been given strong impetus by GCRN’s training policy and the requirement that at all the joint training opportunities offered by GCRN have at least half the number of participants from each community radio station be women. Community radio women have therefore received training in ICT and broken the myth that it is only for men and the lettered in the society.

Among other affirmative action initiatives, community radio in Ghana has openly supported women’s participation in local government elections. These elections are non-partisan, so do not go against the code of GCRN and its member stations. The community radio stations have provided support by publicizing and covering women candidates exclusively, even going to the extent of training them in how to speak on radio and mounted platforms. This has often been at the expense even of male volunteers at the stations. Independent evaluation of these efforts in the 2002 elections showed that the efforts of community radio stations paid off greatly with significantly greater numbers of women winning elections in localities that had community radio stations. As an offshoot, many of the women who won or participated in the elections have gone ahead to become community radio volunteers.

Despite the laudable successes chalked up to and the policy framework set in place by the GCRN, the desired gender balance has not been achieved in the decision making and the day-to-day running of most of the community radio stations. Factors responsible for this situation are no different from the general picture nationwide as described earlier.

Cultural, religious and social practices, low educational levels and the demands of family life have made it impossible for more women to be involved in community radio. As one woman put it, “radio is like a husband and there is a husband at home who would not countenance any other competitor.”

Indeed the long hours, early morning and late night shifts make it difficult for more women to be retained on staff after a certain age since they have to start and/or care for their families. Some men would also not agree to their spouses being on radio discussing subjects they believe would undermine their authority as husbands.

The way forward therefore lies in sustained education not only at the community radio level but also at the national level and this calls for advocacy and networking to ensure that the issue of the involvement of women at all levels of governance becomes part of the national agenda.