According to the United Nations statistics, women actually perform 53 percent of all economic activities in developing countries, whereas men are credited with performing three quarters of the work.
The 1995 UN Human Development Report, (UNHDR) states that “an estimated $16 trillion in global output is currently invisible, of which $11 trillion is estimated to be produced by women.
It states that women in Africa represent 52 per cent of the total population, contribute approximately 75 percent of the agricultural work, and produce 60 to 80 percent of the food. Yet, they earn only 10 percent of African incomes and own just one per cent of the continent’s assets.
No doubt they face tremendous challenges to achieving gender equality. Majority of women in the developing world are still relegated to micro enterprises and informal economic activities.The impact of women in Ghana cannot be underestimated.
They form over 52% of the country’s population. Despite gains in some areas, gender inequalities continue to limit women’s ability to participate in and contribute to the growth of the economy. The main economic activity for women in the rural areas of Ghana in pre-colonial times was agricultural production and that hasn’t changed.
Those along the coast sold fish caught by men. But many of the financial benefits from their commercial activities went into the upkeep of the household.Even though the Education Act of 1960 expanded and required elementary education, some parents were reluctant to send their daughters to school because they were needed at home and on the farm.
It was common knowledge that the woman’s place is the kitchen and so many girls dropped after the elementary level. A national census in 1984 revealed the ratio of male to female registration in elementary schools was 55:45, with the percentage of girls dropping at the secondary level.
Also 17% of them were registered at the universities in the same year. In spite of this, Ghanaian women have been able to rise to top professional positions. However, gender issues have pushed women into female-stereotyped careers such as secretarial, nursing, teaching and dressmaking professions. Only few are in sciences, engineering, and management.
Some are employed in the same line of work as men and paid equal wages and granted maternity leave with pay. For those with little or no education living in the urban centres, trading is the main economic activity.
Women work longer hours than men when unpaid household work is accounted for.
Women have relatively poor access to and control of, agricultural inputs, including land, fertilizer, machinery, and labor.
Often, they have limited access to family labour and lack the resources to hire labour for farming and other economic activities.
In addition, their time constraints make it difficult for them to benefit from skills training, health programmes and other development activities.
Women have less access to credit from formal channels than men do according to a Ghana Living Standard Survey, (GLSS 1993). Lack of collateral increases women’s difficulty in getting as much credit as they need from formal sources.
Despite these setbacks, women in Ghana are economically active. Engaging in such activities enables them to meet their current needs and invest in the future.
But their success in business activities is constrained by cultural, educational, and economic barriers.
Working to remove these barriers will boost business for Ghanaian women, and for Ghana.Women are the ones who suffer most in the deplorable living conditions in slum areas and often excluded from the planning and implementation of water supply and sanitation programmes.
A Ghana Living Standards Survey, (GLSS 1993) revealed that the incidence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, (AIDS) were three times higher among women than men.
Ghana is party to several international conventions which require her to guarantee women’s right to housing, equality, education, decision making and health care among others.
This is perhaps; the reason the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana was launched to identify key national issues of concern to women and urge policy makers and relevant agencies to address them.
It states the need for an alternative approach to promote sustainable and equitable economic development for women and men.
“This new approach needs to recognize the importance of mobilizing local productive resources, promoting and guaranteeing security in livelihoods and upholding democratic principles.” According to the manifesto, economic policy must be based on equality in economic opportunities and rewards, and would need to start from the household level, since that is where women perform unpaid labour.
It states that the unpaid labour involves repetitive and time consuming tasks such as collecting fuel wood, fetching water, childcare, sweeping, garbage disposal and cooking as well as the reproduction of social relations in the household or the community. “Ghanaian women spend more than two times as much the time on domestic as men.
The issue of housework is critical because it defines women’s subordinate position in social relations and affects their work in the wider economy,” it explains.
The women manifesto bemoans that even in the formal sector of the economy, with its better established norms of minimum labour rights and protections, women suffer disadvantages in spite of existing labour laws and Ghana’s ratification of International Labour Organisation, (ILO) Conventions on women.
It demands among others that government undertake fundamental review of economic policies to promote the well-being and security of women and men and ensure a reversal of past economic policy failures.
“That government reverses practices which have given control of national economic decision making to the international financial institutions and foreign governments and to ensure the full participation of citizens in economic policy making.”
It stress that the executive, legislature, the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, TUC, SSNIT and employers should ensure that social security arrangements are put in place to cover all working women and men in the formal and informal sectors in rural and urban areas by the year 2015.
Increased income controlled by women gives them self confidence.
Women who control their own income tend to have fewer children, and fertility rate is inversely related to national income growth.Research has shown that women are more likely to reinvest profits back into human capital than are men.
When women have economic power they gain more equality and control over their own lives, while contributing directly to their children’s development in terms of nutrition, health and education.
Several studies have indicated that unless women’s economic security is strengthened, regions, particularly Africa, will not be able to eliminate poverty, achieve gender equality, or realize any genuine progress on the UN’s stated Millennium Development Goals.
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