Do you live in Ghana? Is it being a feminist there?
THE ANSWER TO THE SECOND QUESTION CAN BE FOUND IN THE CONCLUSION IF YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO READ EVERYTHING BUT I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU READ EVERYTHING.
So before I state my answer, I want to say this is my opinion and might not apply to every feminist living in Ghana. Secondly, I live in Greater Accra region which is the capital of Ghana so my perspective might not be as detailed in terms of feminism in the other nine regions in Ghana. Thirdly, my demographic in terms of income, education, status, etc might also skew my perspective. Even though my response will try to be holistic as much as possible, my perspective will be foremost.
In Ghana, women are given opportunities in terms of education, health, positions of power in the political and religious setting, etc. Even though the statistics show that these tend to be lower as compared to men the opportunities still exist.
In Ghana, women empowerment is more prominent than feminism. Even though women empowerment is included in feminism, women empowerment can be achieved without feminism included. In Ghana, many people do not mind awarding women opportunities (even though in some areas, women are still denied the most basic rights) but there is a level that when women get closer to achieving, it scares the shit out of people. So it is like yes a woman can work with men but why should the woman be favoured over the man in terms of that prestigious promotion? This is in conflict with feminism because feminism is fighting for the EQUAL opportunities and rights of the sexes socially, economically and politically.Therefore we appreciate that compared to the past, women have come a long way. There are many women who own businesses, there are women in prestigious places of employment, there are women who have the choice to their reproductive health, there are women who can choose whether to want to remain at the house and take care of it or decide to remain unmarried and live independently. Yes, we are grateful for these BUT what is frustrating in Ghana is the invisible ceiling that blocks women from achieving EQUALITY OF THE SEXES and as a result, the percentage of these successes compared to men will still be lower and the struggle women have to take or the sexual harassment they have to endure on their route to success shows that Ghanaians are not afraid to empower women but are afraid to offer us feminism because equality does not sit well with many. Many Ghanaians, in regard to gender related issues, believe in equity and not equality which is not what feminism stands for. Equity disagrees with feminism because it already creates a division that one gender is disadvantaged than the other based on the features of that gender before measures are taken thus making those measures unfair and usually unfavourable.
In Ghana though, religion and culture is so intricately linked to everything that any thing which tries to upset these two is usually met with resistance. The two main religions in Ghana are Islam and Christianity. Now, the common interpretation of these two religions is that women are to be submissive to the husbands and are to be ruled by the man. (I am not in a position to judge whether these are actually accurate interpretations) Emphasis on women marrying, giving birth to children and managing a home is rampant in the Ghanaian society. Now, the tricky thing about religion is this what gives people a purpose for living. Without religion, a person’s actions may seem meaningless because it has no effect after death. Religion answers questions science, reason and other forms of knowing cannot answer. Religion provides people with hope that though they live in an evil world, there is a joy of heaven or an inner peace of knowing that there is a God somewhere who still cares. Religions helps to make people make a little sense of the chaos around them. Therefore, in a heavily religious Ghanaian society, intr-ducing feminism which at times seems to be at odds with religion seems to many people as re-instilling further chaos in an environment that they are using religion to make less hectic. It becomes scary and almost even hopeless that what they base their whole life on can be shaken by a movement and thus in order to have all the aforementioned benefits, they do not accept feminism.
Let’s put religion aside. There is also culture. Our culture is patriarchal. Trying to be a feminist does not sit well with many even those who are not religious. They think women are ungrateful for how far they have come and label feminists as ‘men-haters’ ‘sour women’ and trust me some even call us ‘lesbians.’ I have had many conversations with people to understand why they are not accepting of feminism and the common reply you hear links to machismo. They believe that as a man, naturally the man should be the stronger one and protect the less vulnerable which tends to be the women and the children. However, as somebody who does not subscribe to gender roles because it is a social construct, I believe the whole notion of machismo is an obstruction to feminism in Ghana because it will always make men see women as vulnerable and weak despite how much we show them that we are strong in ways which might differ a bit from that of males.
Nonetheless, all is not gloomy. The younger generation tends to offer a bit more hope and now there are more feminists. There are groups like Pepper Dem Ministries which promotes feminism through the media. It is more common to find a female in Ghana that identifies as a feminist. However, there are a lack of united feminists, generally. In Ghana, women seem to be feminists in their own private corner or shy from the term ‘feminist’ even though they unconsciously fight for the equality of women. This lack of unison tends to make the feminist movement in Ghana diluted and although there have been some marches and other advocacy measures, the lack of unison among feminist is really disconcerting.
In a nutshell, being a feminist in Ghana is hard because of social constructs linking to machismo, the complex relationship Ghana has with religion and the lack of unison among women and feminist in Ghana. On the other hand, it is becoming a much more common phenomenon and a more discussed issue in the Ghanaian society and if executed properly, has hope of being a full blown movement in the nation in the future. How distant or near that future is though, depends on the amount of education (formal and informal) that we teach all sexes in order for feminism to work in
2087
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