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What women should look out for before voting this year
A cross section of women Pulse.com.gh spoke with say their current living conditions will determine their choice of leader.
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More often, slogans, name recognition, and personality are all that come through in campaign materials being rolled out on the streets and in the media. But how do Ghanaians, particularly women, move beyond a candidate’s image to the substance of their campaigns?
With barely three weeks to the December 7 polls, political leaders have couched so many messages and slogans, primarily on health, education and job opportunities, for women who form the majority of voters.
But a cross section of women Pulse.com.gh spoke with say they are unperturbed by these messages. Instead, their current living conditions will determine their choice of leader, and they urge their fellow women to take the same into consideration.
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Auntie Aku operates a cold store at the main Nungua market. Seated in front of her shop, she tells me that she has lost all hope in the politicians.
Nevertheless, her advice to women voters is that “they should examine their living conditions before choosing their leader this year. We are already suffering here at the market. We continue to inhale dust as our roads remain untarred. So I doubt if I’ll vote. I might pound some fufu and enjoy on election day.”
She believes that all the same, “God should intervene for us and choose the right leader for us. We are fed up with the fake promises by these politicians. I’m also asking for peace during the voting process. My fellow women should vote and go home peacefully when done and wait for the results.”
For Comfort, a shop owner at the market, “business is bad. We fear it might be worse of we don’t get the right government in place. So our women should look at who can help reverse the trend and vote for that fellow,” she tells me in her local Ga dialect.
Not so far from her shop is a woman in her late 20s, who appeared tired from a hard day’s work at the market. Seated next to a garden eggs seller, she tells me that women must vote wisely for a leader who can improve the country’s educational system for young people.
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She says: “I do not want my children to become school dropouts as I have become. I do not want them to fall victims to teenage pregnancy like I did. So we must elect a leader who will create an enabling environment for women to work with to support their children.”
But what are the views of women rights activists in Ghana about the situation?
Adwoa Bame is the Deputy Convener for the Women’s Manifesto Coalition for Ghana. She gives me a breakdown of what women should look out for before voting for a leader this year.
“In the 2016 elections, this is my plea to women voters. Look at who can address your needs the best way they can. We shouldn’t be looking at who comes up with so many promises that we know from experience that most of them never get fulfilled, but look at what really speaks to you as a woman. So as a woman in the market, who is going to address your needs when it comes to any crisis?
“As a woman farmer who is speaking to your need, as a teacher, even as a housewife, who is creating that enabling environment for you to be able to take care of your family the best way you can. Women, we should look out for who has our best interest at heart and we have said over a period that give women the opportunity to also lead.”
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Ms Bame, who is also a member of the Non-governmental organisation, Abantu, argued that “Women are leaders, nobody can take that away from us. So look at who is going to give women the opportunity to be in those positions that will look at addressing issues as they come up.”
On her part, Esther Tawiah, the Executive Director for Gender Centre for Empowering Development believes women should assess what the various parties have for them in their manifestos in order to make a wise choice.
“Women who are in the majority should look at key issues concerning their health, education, obviously their kids are in school...what is the best policy to them, what are their visions. They [women] should look at agriculture, the rural women...they should look at what the political parties have in their manifestos for them in terms of agric,” she said.
She argues that a leader without a strong political will would not be able to work towards achieving the desires of women.
“We need political parties that have a strong political will to push some of these things because all the issues we are talking about, we have them in our laws; we have treaties. But the issue we are facing now is implementation. And that you need a leader with a strong political will who will say I don’t care even if you vote me out but I will make sure that the right thing is done. That is what I want our women to go out there and look out for such leaders in the community and vote for them,” she added.
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Currently, of a parliament of 275 people, women only take up 30 seats. That's about 10 percent for a country where women outnumber the men.
Ms Tawiah believes the situation must be reversed, or things may get worse for women.
“We are appealing with the voters out there, give the women who are contesting in your constituencies the chance to become members of parliament and let’s see the change they can also bring on board,” she advised.
Note: Names of women at the market were created for the purpose of the article.
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