An Analysis of Women’s Political Participation in Ghana under SDG5
Date
2019-12
Authors
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Publisher
University Of Ghana
Abstract
The representation of women in political and public life has been historically low across the globe
despite the efforts being made to reverse the trend. Very few countries have recorded marginal and
inconsistent increase in women’s representation. Ghana is not exempted from this global trend. This
study focused on analyzing women’s political participation in Ghana in the context of sustainable
development, an attempt to identify factors that have positively affected women’s political participation,
challenges faced by women occupying and intending to occupy political positions and innovative
ways of dealing with these challenges. The methodology was qualitative in design and involved
online survey with purposively selected members of the general public and interviews with
women parliamentarians, district assembly and unit committee members, political party executives
and also representatives from non-governmental organizations. In addition to primary data from respondents,
the study relied on secondary data from existing literature to support the work. The study
found out that despite domestic and international commitments and efforts to increase women’s political
participation, the statistics is still low at both national and local government levels with very
marginal rise particularly in the number of contestants for elective positions. Since 1992, women’s
representation in the national parliament has been below 13 percent. The study realized that women
occupying and intending to occupy political positions face similar and sometimes peculiar challenges
including excessive monetization of politics, political party gatekeeping and the ‘godfather’
syndrome and lack of support from family, media and society due to the patriarchal society. It is a
wake-up call for all stakeholders. - government, women’s groups, non-governmental organizations,
civil society, traditional and religious leaders, development partners and women themselves to work
together. The passage of the affirmative action bill into law coupled with proper implementation,
monitoring and evaluation by all stakeholders will make a difference in meeting the Sustainable
Development Goal 5.
Description
MA. International Affairs
Keywords
Women, Political Participation, SDG5, Ghana