From left to right: Prof. Adoo Adeku, Dr. Sarah Akrofi-Quarcoo and Ms. Ernestina Ofoe, Programme Coordinator, FES Ghana.
Dr. SARAH AKROFI QUARCOO, a professor at the University of Ghana’s Department of Communication Studies, said Ghanaian media houses have perpetuated issues of gender inequality in politics, calling on journalists to address the anomaly ahead of the November 7 polls.
She, along with leading members of women’s right groups: Abantu for Development and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) made these comments at a press conference on Wednesday at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra.
“There are overt and covert practices which hinder women from engaging in politics and even lead successful campaigns against their male counterparts,” she indicated.
A recent report from the National Media Commission found that women receive 11 percent of media coverage while men receive 49 percent.
Dr Quarcoo said news articles on the radio, television and newspapers tend to promote gender stereotypes, where men are seen as the “breadwinners” and women are restricted to roles of “homemakers, caregivers and mothers who do not belong to the public space in politics.”
“If women are not portrayed as the kind of people that voters like or if the press uses certain adjectives to describe them in negative terms, it calls into question whether or not they have the credentials they need to be in politics and also to succeed,” she stressed.
Dr. Quarcoo went on to say that the problem is magnified by the fact that media houses tend to be dominated by men. She said women therefore rarely get to cover stories that are outside of their typical gender roles, such as political stories.
“When it comes to covering the presidency, the first option is a male reporter,” she said, calling for a paradigm shift in that respect.”
Hamida Harrison, a representative from Abantu for Development, an organization working towards gender equality, said that the issue of female under-representation in media hurts Ghana beyond the political sector. She said that by restricting women’s ability to win political seats, the country loses the potential to come up with more innovate solutions to pressing economic and social challenges.
“Without gender equality, we cannot have the necessary development to escape poverty. We can’t have peace and security,” she said.
Prof. Kate Adoo Adeku, chairperson of Abantu for Development called on journalists to make a space in the media for female political campaigns.
BY Derek Maiolo & Melvin Tarlue