Jean Mensa
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Ms. Jean Mensa, has celebrated the emergence of women in leadership positions both domestically and on the international scene, describing the development as a cracking of the glass ceiling.
She was speaking as a guest speaker during the 75th Speech and Prize Giving Day of the St. Mary’s Senior High School of which she is an alumnus, last week in Accra.
It was an auspicious moment to showcase herself and where she has reached today, including many others of her gender, as a means of encouraging the girl child to aim higher.
“The glass ceiling has cracked in significant places; the door stands open.
“As a proud alumna, I stand here as living proof of the transformational education and nurturing this institution provides. Indeed, the education, discipline and values instilled within these walls shaped me just as they have shaped countless women who have gone on to influence our society positively,” she said.
The theme for the occasion, “Empowering Minds, Shaping Futures: 75 Years of Girl Child Education in Truth and Virtue,” she said, is as relevant today as it was 75 years ago. Casting her mind around the world, she said, “Women are rising, breaking barriers and taking their rightful place in leadership.”
The emergence of women at the top of the ladder, she said, “drums home the urgency to empower and nurture women and equip them with tools and skills to lead,” adding that the clarion call to empower women remains crucial. Women, she noted, are positioning themselves and occupying roles which were hither to the preserve of men, a case in point the EC Chairperson said being “our first female Vice President, Her Excellency Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang” and the first African woman Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Honourable Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey – a SMOGAN or old student of St Mary’s Senior High School not forgetting Ghana’s female Chief Justice. Continuing, she said, “and your own SMOGAN, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.”
The foregone realities, she said, makes the rise of women undeniable.
Offshore, she said, “Beyond our borders, women are also making history. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation are led by women. Infact, the World Trade Organisation is led by an African woman – Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The glass ceiling has cracked in significant places; the door stands open,” she said.
Seventy-five years ago, Jean observed a few Ghanaian women dared to dream of such heights, dreams of which she said “were whispers often stifled by a society that confined women’s ambitions.”
“Today, those barriers are broken, and you, our young ladies, must seize this moment,” she said.
“And yes, if we can, so can you. For we all started out just like you, unsure of ourselves – not sure of where life was taking us – yet determined to become, and working hard to achieve all round academic success. It is possible to become who you want to be, and so I encourage you, our young ladies to dream and to become, to dream and to occupy high offices, to dream and to achieve great feats through hard work and determination. If we could excel despite our challenges and constraints, you – surrounded by role models – can and should soar higher and do better than us,” she said, capping it with “The horizon is indeed yours to claim.”
Turning to the achievements of St Mary’s Senior High School, she noted that “for seven and a half decades, St. Mary’s Senior High School has educated girls and equipped them with skills and timeless values of truth and virtue—our motto’s bedrock. These principles have shaped SMOGANS into trailblazers. It is not surprising that we find SMOGANS achieving great feats in every sector of our country. In every field, from archaeology to zoology, our alumnae shine, carrying forward a legacy of excellence.”
Guests at the occasion were Mrs. Alice Chinebuah, Special Guest of Honour, Ms. Ama Okyere, representative of the Vice President Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang among others.
By A.R. Gomda