Evidence from Jirapa District, Upper West Region, Ghana
Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5766 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0484 (Online) Vol.8, No.15, 2018 Prospects and Challenges of Women Participation in Local Governance - Evidence from Jirapa District, Upper West Region, Ghana Alhassan Baba 1* Wang Yihuan 1,2 Ahmed Mahmud 1,2,3 Alhassan Fahad 1,2,3,4 1.College of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University, Qinghua Donglu, Haidian District, Bejing 100083, P.R. China 2.College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, Qinghua Donglu, Haidian District, Bejing 100083, P.R. China 3.National Headquarters, Ghana National Ambulance Service, Greater Accra, P. O. Box MB 423, Accra, Ghana 4.WA Municipal Health Administration, Ghana Health Service, Upper West Region, P.O. Box 321, WA, Ghana Abstract Women’s role in community development has become crucial and critical in contemporary times. It is in the light of this that women’s involvement in governance and decision-making is paramount to the realization of this social objective. Despite the benefits that communities stand to gain if women were incorporated into local governance and decision-making, women still face barrage of discrimination at various levels of social and political discourse. Traditional social structures have tendered to place women in the subservient position in relation to men and hence making such societies patriarchal in nature. Even though women generally outnumbered men in Ghana (PHC, 2010), their numerical strength does not transform their power positions as they themselves have come to accept their traditional placements without question. This has led to the deep institutionalization of women’s role at the margin of society.
[Show full text]