FE-MALES OR FEAR-MALES?: ISSUES OF GENDER DYNAMICS IN GHANAIAN POLITICS

Between last week and now, I have noticed a trend – one where females in leadership have their values trashed and trivialized for no significant reason.

It started with cyberbullying activities against Hon. Dr Hanna Louisa Bisiw, with some going as far as putting a caricature of her out there to motivate trolling activities against her. You could clearly see tags and labels that covertly revealed displeasure from persons who, for no reason, just envied her recent anti-galamsey campaign. Would it have been the case if a man led that? Certainly not.

Then came the interview Hon. Ruth Seddoh had last week Friday about violent happenings in the Ablekuma North Election. What could have been an argument of dissenting opinions was turned into the trolling and mockery of what appears to be a hormonal imbalance of an acne flare-up on her face. Sadly, you had some some females singing same tunes, a group that should have properly appreciated a natural issue as such.

Without a space to breathe around this canker, we later see a leader of the opposition party run very wild emotional attacks on the person of Prof. Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, deputy health minister-designate. In the opposition leader’s remarks, he makes this statement, ‘Mr. Speaker, if some of the young ladies don’t have the resilience, they must be quiet. If you start to speak….and…people come after you, then you would be crying…’

Come on. Resilience? That’s the virtue that led her to a seat at the legislative front, the same virtue inspiring younger ladies adopting her as a role model and a mentor. ‘Then you would be crying?’ Signs that females always divorce strength but marry weakness? Come on. What statements are these? It is improper.

This could have simply been an issue-based argument other than a reinforcement of toxic patriarchy that reminds women that dreaming to lead and serve is nothing but a self-inflicted nightmare. There are females who are inspired with sights of other females in leadership positions but get absolutely discouraged and demoralized with events like these. For others, it becomes a fear that lives with them and demonstrates itself at all levels of life.

I hold a position that gender issues are not always to be looked at from fanaticism. In some cases, put your brother, sister, daughter, son, wife, husband, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece in that unfavorable position and be the judge of any action.

As political leaders, you may all go behind the scenes to apologize over events like these over a glass of wine. The publics never see these sides, in most cases. As such, it is essential that exchanges, arguments and banters are guided with the best of discretion. Same applies to every person, particularly the online trolls.

We are raising fe-males, not fear-males!

#ResettingGhana #genderempowerment

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