Participants engaging in an activity

Many actions of society and some social constructions have a tendency of perpetrating inequalities among individuals based on their gender. It can be said for a fact that society constructs certain features and characteristics which a male or female should exhibit, therefore, individuals who neither exhibit male nor female characteristics are mostly stereotyped. Thus, a “gender box” has been made and everyone is expected to fit in. This breeds so much neglect when an individual does not conform to the boxes created in their societies.

In a bid to address these issues, the Ghana Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Alliance organized a Gender Transformative Approach workshop for its members from various Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to help empower vulnerable groups and individuals in society.

Research has proven that girls are the people who suffer most inequalities in society due to various factors (culture and religion). In most cultures, females are not expected to be ahead of their male counterparts. Thus, in the home, the girl is always expected to serve and not to be served and this transcends into the corporate organizations which do not believe in women leadership.

In this regard, the right to equality of girls is not granted ßin the sense that equal opportunities would not be given to both male and female but higher opportunities for males and less for females. This goes a long way to suppress the potentials of most females and affects the development of their societies since they are unable to make meaningful contributions to the development process.

The alliance therefore, seeks to identify vulnerable groups especially, girls who still face various forms of inequalities in order to provide the necessary support. This is done under the “Get Up Speak Out” (GUSO) project that will enable individuals to learn and know their rights and fight for them. This ensures that human rights are duly respected in the societies they find themselves. For instance, the individual’s right to life, opinion, participation, education, health and the right to be free from harm among others are basic human rights which need to be upheld and not curtailed. With this, harmful practices like child marriage, female genital mutilation among others which affect girls will be a thing of the past.

Apart from some cultures and religious beliefs which undermines the abilities of girls, the media contributes largely to the situation due to the fact that movies, music videos and some stories mostly project women and girls as subordinates and must be ruled by males. This feeds into the minds of individuals in society and affects their behaviors towards their female counterparts. In some instances, the females themselves are made to believe that they cannot rise to certain levels and therefore do not make any efforts to achieve their full potentials. These actions are likely to hinder the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal 5 which talks about Gender Equality.

WAY FORWARD

In order to reduce inequalities in society which are likely to result in sexual and gender based violence there is the need to;

• Raise awareness about unhealthy, rigid and harmful gender norms.
• Provide information and education to adolescent girls and boys.
• Replace unhealthy and inequitable gender norms with redefined, healthy and positive gender norms.

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance”. – Kofi Annan.

Instead of naming confident and daring women and girls as disrespectful and bossy, it would be better to identify their exceptional skills and potentials and put it to effective use for the good of society.

Mavis Naa Korley Aryee 

Member, CYIB Curious Minds