Opare's appointment is a 'plus for women' but... - Gender Activist

Europa

January 4, 2017 6:27 PM

The President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo on Wednesday named Frema Osei Opare as the first female in the country’s history as Chief of Staff.

Gender Activist, Esther Tawiah has welcomed the choice of a female as Ghana’s next Chief of Staff.

He made the announcement on the 4th of January 2017 ahead of his official inauguration at his residence in Nima.

Speaking to Pulse.com.gh, Ms Tawiah, the Executive Director for Gender Centre for Empowering Development believes this is one of the positive results that have been achieved after a long struggle for gender balance and equality in the country.

She said Frema’s appointment is “a plus for the Ghanaian women. For me, particularly, for the Ghanaian young woman, who aspires to be somebody like her. She is a mother, she is a wife and she is a politician and she is doing it successfully with her family intact. So for me the message that it sends to the young woman is that you can still achieve your dreams and still be married and still have your kids.”

“I know Nana Addo has said it over and over that he believes in women so this coming from him is not much of a surprise...I have so much confidence in her, she has the expertise, she is experienced...So much experience from the field of academia and then to the field of entrepreneurship to the field of politics, she has done it all and so I strongly believe that she is going to put so many things to bear that people will really know that yes, the women are taking the leadership positions and they are actually performing,” she added.

She argues that even though the appointment is a good sign of equality for women, the president-elect could still do more.

“For me I think that it is not enough we will be getting hopefully, because if you look at the names that have come up you can see that already three women are there. So it tells you something that if we don’t get equality at least there is some fairness in there.

“There are so many appointments...we really hope that he is going to make sure that all the boards will have the 30 percent quota having women there in all the government boards and ministerial positions,” she added.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s first female Chief of Staff, Frema Osei Opare has expressed optimism that the incoming New Patriotic Party Administration will sail through with her leading the backroom staff.

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