Shoutbox » Gender and Development

Dr Kwegyir Aggrey, a prominent Ghanaian Lawyer, academic, philosopher and politician once said, "If you educate a woman, you educate a nation". As if he knew how important this would be when given the chance. Often, women and girls have been marginalised in a lot of social processes. From the period when they were considered irrelevant to the period when they were considered child bearing instrument, women have found it very difficult to assume their rightful place in society.

However, in recent years, women have received serious consideration from governments all over the world. This has become possible because women that were able to defy all these odds, made an enormous mark in the chosen field they found themselves. Though, gender may mean so many things, when considered in terms of the role that men and women do, it gives us a something to think about. This is because in most communities, especially in developing countries, women are still discriminated against when it comes to education, health, employment opportunities and decision making processes that affect their lives, something which has contributed to their inability to develop their agency to bring about an improvement in their life.

As Sen (1999) argues, development should be seen as the process of enhancing the freedoms of people. By this definition he believes that when leaders are conscious in their decision making with regards to development where each member of the society is seen as a part of the process the right thing will be done. Th continuous discrimination of women affects their academic performance and their physical and emotional development. Give women the chance, and they will lead the development process since they have proved it (Margaret Thatcher (British PM), Georgina Woods (Chief Justice Ghana), Sophia Bamford Addo (Speaker of Parliament Ghana), Hillary Clinton (Sec. of State), among others) and will do it again.

Posted By Maxwell on Thursday 4th March 2010 a 05:57pm

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