Presidential Advisor and National Democratic Congress (NDC) politician, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has highlighted the many challenges confronting women in Ghana’s political space.
She noted that female politicians endure disproportionate levels of abuse, with such hostilities making the political terrain especially difficult for women to navigate.
“We go through a lot, very challenging circumstances, very difficult circumstances and generally who makes an efforts even to create an enabling environment for that young female or woman in politics, think about it,” she said on JoyFM’s Super Morning Show while discussing a new report on Abuse on Women in Politics.
She lamented that these experiences often discourage women from fully engaging in politics, thereby deepening gender imbalances in leadership.
She said people just refuse to agree or understand that it is not an easy task for any female to walk in these pathways of politics, “so whatever attempts people make to discourage them, literally, it will push you back into your bedroom. And to be honest with you, sometimes it takes a lot of energy, a lot of effort, serious soul-searching for you to want to stay in this space so long as you want to do.”
“One of the reasons why some of us are lucky is because of the sort of person you work for. I remember in the course of campaign, there were times when you will struggle to have access to the washroom so imagine you are the only female or one or two of you with men probably 20 and 30 of them, imagine if you don’t have a boss who cares about the fact that at least I have one or two females on my team,” she added.
Read also: Joyce Bawah Mogtari eulogises Dr. Omane Boamah
She urged intensified public education and awareness campaigns to combat the abuse of women in politics, emphasising that creating a respectful political culture is vital for encouraging more women to step forward and contribute to national development.
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