Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, has urged women to make the expected impact in positions they occupy to serve as a reference for advocating women leadership in the country.
She said women leaders who failed to perform as expected of them left a bad precedent, which negatively affected the chances of other women who aspired to lead.
“When you do that (fail to perform), you are closing the doors for all the other women behind you”, she said.
Madam Batuure said this in Wa during an inter-generational dialogue between women leaders and Girls and Young Women (GYW) as part of efforts to build the capacities of GYW and inspire them to take up leadership roles in society.
The engagement was under the auspices of the Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD) Ghana and the Upper West Regional branch of the She Leads Social Movement as part of the implementation of the She Leads Project in the region by CARD-Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana.
Girls and Young Women from selected Senior High Schools in Wa and members of the She Leads Social Movement attended the forum on the theme: “Harnessing the leadership potentials of girls and young women: the role of female leaders or activists”.
“When you are a woman and you get to that position, please make it worthwhile so that we can always refer back to the marks that you have left to make a case for women leadership,” Madam Batuure emphasised.
She encouraged them not to succumb to the barriers against their bid to lead such as cultural, religious and social norms but to make efforts to overcome those perceived barriers to succeed.
She indicated that GYW, who encountered obstacles in their journey to leadership, should use their abilities and potentials or lobbying skills to overcome them and if that failed they should close their eyes to the challenges and press on.
Madam Ernestina Biney, the Acting Executive Director of CARD-Ghana, explained that the forum was aimed to create a safe space for sharing experiences and developing transformative strategies that could help nurture and maximise the leadership and development potential of GYW.
She added that it was also to foster partnerships between female leaders and GYW to promote best practices, discuss existing challenges and opportunities for meaningful and inclusive participation of GYW in leadership.
Madam Khalida M. A. Seidu, the Deputy Upper West Region Women Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), observed that religious, traditional and cultural norms had sidelined women making it difficult for them to hold political leadership in the region, especially Wa Municipality.
She stated that though the Holy Quran forbade women to lead men in prayers, it was not the same for women seeking political leadership hence the need to support competent women who aspire for political positions in society.
Madam Seidu observed that aside from the socio-cultural barriers against female leadership, women also shied away from contesting leadership positions, especially political positions for fear of stigma, insults and negative chastisements.
While appealing to men to support competent women to lead, she also encouraged women to take the initiative to lead saying, “Don’t rely on people, human beings can let you down.”
Pognaa Amamata Mumuni, the Queenmother of Duori, a suburb of Wa, advised GYW to be meek and respectful in any leadership position they held and not to be “engineers” of conflicts wherever they found themselves in order to succeed.
Other speakers at the forum were Madam Nafisah Yahaya, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Community Development, Madam Felecia Baganiah, the President of the Upper West Regional branch of She Leads Social Movement and Madam Saudatu Mohammed, the Executive Director of Life Again Foundation.
