Women Get Together to Face Tomorrow
by Charity Binka
The struggle for women's liberation and emancipation has come a long way since the International year of Women was declared over a decade ago. Since then women have been playing their part in the development of the world economy.
They are found in every field of endeavor - medicine, engineering, law, teaching and a host of others. Perhaps the most important role that women continue to play is the household work which is of course not even recognised as work. Yet the value of women's work in the household, if given money value, would add an estimated one-third to the value of the world production.
Inspite of women's immense contribution to development they suffer a lot of discrimination - in work places and in the home. Some earn less even at same levels of training than the male counterparts. Some jobs are not even open to women simply because the management cannot afford the maternity leave forgetting that without the women giving birth, the world's population will decline affecting economic growth and development.
It is known that women are the breadwinners of more than one-quarter of the families in the world, yet they have no say in the decision-making at home. The achievements of women are not recognised. Their successes are only measured in terms of what their men have achieved.
This abysmal situation is now beginning to change for the better due to the various declarations and campaigns mounted all over the world on women's liberation and development. The women have started to rediscover themselves and realised the potentials they have, first as women, and as mothers and wives.
Their struggle has indeed come a long way as women are no longer satisfied trailing in the shadows of the successes of their men. Even those who saw themselves as mere objects who must do everything in their power, including bleaching of the skin (or is it toning of the skin?), to attract the male sex are beginning to think again.
For the rural woman, however, the battle is far from being won. The illiterate rural woman still suffers a lot of discrimination. Her toils and labour are still taken for granted. After she has toiled several months in the farms - planting, weeding, harvesting and seeing to the sale of the product — it is the man who determines how the revenue realised should be spent, most often not necessarily on feeding the family and paying the children's school fees. He may even decide to take a new wife when the harvest is good.
Available data shows that in Ghana, rural women provide more than half of the food product. They work longer hours than the men, carrying triple workloads, in their households, in the fields as mothers and wives. Rural women often work an average of 18 hours a day. And yet at the end of the day, they deny themselves the needed nutritious part of the meal which all go to their men resulting in anaemia and other attendant illnesses that plague rural women in the Third World, especially during pregnancy.
In the Northern sector of Ghana where for many years high bride price has sentenced women to a life of slavery in their husband's farms, the women are working hard to free themselves and be given the chance to prove their worth. They are also now caught in the new vision of their own power of changing their status in life and breaking that yoke of poverty and degradation that had plagued them for many years.
They have formed a number of farming groups and are working hard at what they can do best - farming to feed their families and the nation. The results have been positive so far, for in unity there is strength. The men cannot complain since they are beneficiaries of the fruits of the women's labour.
Speaking for the women in the Upper East Region, one cannot say that theyhave been left out in the fight for economic emancipation. They are very busy and committed to their farming activities in spite of the financial and technical constraints they have to battle with everyday.
With the help of the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD), the women have come together from the various districts to form farming groups and are engaged in the cultivation of various crops throughout the year. The women grow crops such as maize, millet and groundnut for the major farming season. During the dry season, they grow tomatoes, pepper and rice
.At Nangodi, near Bolgatanga, about 34 courageous women have formed the Dulugu-Sugri Women's Group Cooperative Farm. For this major season they have cultivated 34-acre plot; 16 acres of sorghum, 13 acres of maize, three acres groundnut and two acres of cowpea. The project is being funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
The Ananore Women Farmers at Zuarungu, Gbeogo Farmers, BalunguWomen Farmers and Nyariga Nos. 1 and 2 Women Farmers groups which are all in the Bolgatanga district are also benefitting from CIDA assistance since last year as the first phase of a five-year project to help solve some of the financial problems of the women in the Upper East Region. The project is under the administration of the Canadian Universities Services Overseas (CUSO).
The Christian Mothers Association, the Nangalikinia Women's Farmers, Gia Women Group and Kolugu Women group, the Paga Giware Dewolidani Women group, ail in the Kassena/Nankana district and the other farming groups in the rest of the five districts are expected to benefit from the CUSO project on rotational basis.
Some of these women's farming groups can manage farms as large as 200 acre revenue from sale of the produce is deposited in a common account of each group for recycling the next planting season. The profits, in cash and in kinds are shared among members. All these go to complement the family budget. The needy members can also count on the groups' funds for loans at little or no interest.
It is worth mentioning here that the 31st December Women's Movement in the region has also made tremendous impact in the lives of the women. The Movement has for example organised the women this season to go into sheanut picking.
Already the Movement has obtained a loan from the COCOBOD for direct purchase of the sheanut from the women. The Movement has also taken delivery of two tractors which have been used to clear large areas for the cultivation of crops by its members.
Miss Veronica Muinya, the Upper East NCWD Regional Secretary sees all these efforts of the women as a great achievement for a developing country like Ghana where it is believed that the women outnumber the men. She believes that with an enlightened and dedicated women-force, Ghana is boundto make great strides in her quest for rapid economic development.
"Hitherto the women did not even know they formed part of the society and were also part of the development process. They even feared to express their views when called upon to do so. But the farming in groups and other social activities have now built in them the confidence that they need to share their wealth of knowledge and capabilities with others," she said.
Miss Munya believes that there is marked difference in the outlook of those women who belong to the farming groups and those who are doing it all alone.
The group farming concept has no doubt improved the living conditions of the families in this agrarian community. The children are now sure of their breakfast before going to school.
As one primary school teacher aptly puts it, "the days of raw groundnuts for breakfast are gone forever." With full stomachs, the children will stay at school and are bound to do better and become assets rather than liabilities to the society.
The Christian Mothers' Association in Navrongo is one of the most successful farming groups with a membership of over 200. The efforts of the group have even attracted the attention of a Canadian women's group. Match International, which has donated a tractor to the association.
Mrs Rose Woebong who heads the group, also has her success story to tell: "Before now the women were not reckoned with in any decision-making at home or in any venture in our society. But since we established this movement, the women are now outspoken and are consulted on all issues. They have, through hard work, shown the whole world that women can contribute to the progress of society as much as men, if not more."
The women in the North have achieved so much; yet the struggle is far from being complete. How could it be possible, when they still suffer from a host of traditional practices such as female circumcision and childhood marriages which are both injurious to their health? These practices are claiming the lives of many able-bodied women who otherwise would have been part of this great force of women struggling to feed the nation. This problem has to be tackled with the seriousness it deserves. Illiteracy is another problem which needs to be solved.
Whatever the problems of these rural women are, however, they have not allowed these to deter them from achieving their set goals but are aiming at great heights. If women can show dedication and commitment at their work in whatever field they find themselves, then the battle for emancipation is already half won.
What women are asking is not equality with men. God in His own wisdom created men differently from women. Any attempt to challenge this uniqueness is a futile exercise. What the women are asking for rather is equal opportunities to prove their worth and contribute their quota to the on-going development process.
Note: This article is based on the writer's interview on the work of Veronica Munya of the NCWD.
For more information on the group, please write to:
National Council on
Women and Development
Box 50, Bolga Ghana 3112
