As part of activities to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD), the Western Regional office of the Department of Gender has held a dialogue on “women in leadership positions in the region in line with the IWD’s theme of the year” for students of Sekondi College.
Mrs Joyce Obiri-Yeboah, Western Regional Director of the Department of Community Development and a panelist urged the participants to take bold steps in challenging themselves to the top by giving themselves to learning, building self-confidence, being willing and committed to a course, and exhibiting courage.
She enlightened that women have been at the forefront leading the quest in all sectors of human endeavor such as education, politics, chieftaincy, business, administration and engineering among others, especially in the region.
She contended that though the coronavirus pandemic has impacted negatively on both men and women in the globe, women were at the losing end for which reason we should help marshal all resources to empower and encourage them to do more.
Mrs Beatrice Quarshie Brown, Deputy Western Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture noted that though agriculture was basically a male dominated occupation women participated in the production chain and advocated for more women inclusion.
She mentioned the difficulty in cultivating and production machinery, less resource distribution, poor resource allocation, especially land and unfair provision of investment as some challenges to women inclusion in agriculture.
To mitigate these challenges, she said women must wake up to the challenge and must respect and value the support given to them by men while men must support women to embrace new roles and educate them to comport themselves while in public.
For her part, Mrs Faustina Yorke Awotwi, Western Regional Director of the Department of Children implored the participants not to give in to intimidation from boys and the society and should not fall to the discriminatory tendencies exhibited by the society.
“Don’t fall to the discriminatory tendencies exhibited by the society by proving your worth to them. Let’s say no to cultural disparity, traditional beliefs, discrimination and intimidations”, she stressed.
Assistant Headmistress (Domestic) of Sekondi College, Mrs Linda Apraku said the theme was timely in that the pandemic has caused a lot of havoc in the country and considering the role played by women as front liners helping to control the effects of the pandemic.
She urged the participants to pay attention and make the necessary notes from the presentations to observe them and further urged the boys to inspire the girls to strive to achieve higher heights.
Madam Maribel Akuorkor Okine, Western Regional Director of the Department of Gender said the IWD was a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, present and future.
She said the theme for this year’s celebration, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
She added that the theme is a call for women’s right to decision-making in all areas of life, equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end to all forms of violence against women and girls, health-care services that respond to their needs as aligned with the priority of the 65th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Rev Seth Ameyaw Danquah, Managing Editor of the Young Advocate and a Life Coach enlightened participants on leadership and defined leadership as the ability to influence a people to willingly follow towards the achievement of a goal or task.
He mentioned that we can demonstrate leadership in four ways such as positional, situational, temperamental or inherent and functional.
He therefore implored the participants to take the initial steps in leadership so as to get the support of others.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
