Irene Martyniuk
As Ghana prepares to return to constitutional government after eleven years of military rule, women continue to work towards playing a more active role in the processes and policies that affect their lives. Takiywaa Manuh, Professor of Law at the University of Legon in Ghana, discussed these issues and others last spring during an IROW-sponsored talk on "Women, Politics and the Law in Ghana." Recounting some of the contradictions in women's position, Professor Manuh observed that women perform the majority of agricultural tasks and are skilled entrepreueurs; yet they have difficulty gaining access to education (only twenty-three percent are literate) or to professional occupations.
Family life and sexuality also pose problems. She noted that ninety-five percent of women are married by the age of twenty-five, most in polygynous unions. Because men oppose contraception and, in the context of high child mortality rates, most women prefer to have many children, the use of birth control is limited. This leads to what Professor Manuh termed a "tragic dilemma," whereby women face both the physical debilitation of multiple pregnancies (an average of six) and the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
Depicting women who seek a larger voice in society as contracting a "frustrating paradox," Ms. Manuh observed that Ghanaian women have the legal right to own property. They often retain their own names after marriage. Through their customary positions as the mouthpieces of the gods and as queen mothers, they retain a measure of symbolic power. Yet they have little role in policy making and often are blamed for the state's fiscal problems. Although Professor Manuh judged that many women's projects have had only limited success, she also described their significant efforts in forming credit banks and cooperatives and in expanding educational opportunities for girls and women.
Following Professor Manuh's talk, a smaller group that included many African residents of the Capital District continued a lively discussion of gender issues and of the prospects for democracy in Ghana and other West African countries.