From left Ms. Susan Aryeetey, Rose Mensah – Kutin and Fritz Kopsieker
ABANTU FOR Development and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Ghana Office, have called on the electorates to vote for more female parliamentary candidates in the December 7 elections.
The two organizations made the call yesterday in Accra at a press conference which was themed: “Increasing Women’s presence In Decision Making: The Role of the Electorate.”
According to them, the electorates have a responsibility of helping bridge the age-old gender gap between women and men in parliament by voting for more female candidates in the upcoming polls.
That, they said, would help increase the number of women in decision-making process at the national level.
Resident Country Director of FES Ghana, Fritz Kopieker in a statement urged that the electorates re-examine their voting pattern this year in favor of women.
“Citizens in their capacities as voters – male and female – must re-examine their criteria for making choices,” he said, adding that “husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and cousins must be supportive when their female relative has something to offer to the larger society and decides to do so.”
He explained that women parliamentary aspirants have over the years not been given the opportunity by the electorates to make it to parliament to influence the decision-making process of the nation.
“It has been accepted globally that without the active participation of women and the incorporation of their perspectives at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development, and peace cannot be achieved,” he indicated.
Economic Cost
Ghana currently has a 10 percent female representation in parliament after six elections.
An official of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Susan Aryeetey in a presentation explained that the issue of women under-representation has a huge economic cost on the nation and the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Making references to some empirical documents, she indicated that in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, the gender gap costs the economy an average of $95 per year.
Director of Abantu For Development, Rose Mensah-Kutin expressed concern about the plight facing women and their children as a result of the economic challenges that continue to confront Ghana.
She said decision making at the national level affects women more and thus must be given equal representation in the decision making process.
BY Melvin Tarlue