A look at two Ghanaian gender empowerment studies

For our assignment this week we were instructed to research peer reviewed journal articles related to our group topic. The first article I read, “Education: Pathway to Empowerment for Ghanaian Women?” (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2010.00120.x/pdf), addressed the connection between education and employment for different age groups in Ghana. Through a 2008 survey study of 600 women from the age groups 18-29, 30-49, and 50 and above, the author showed that education for women in Ghana was steadily improving. However, she notes that this does not necessarily translate to greater employment opportunity.

Some findings:

·         Although 21% of the educated women surveyed worked as formal sector employees, as compared to 1.7% of uneducated women, for only 52% of educated women were self-employed (without employees) as compared to 74.3% of uneducated women.

·         More women in the 18-29 group were employed as regular salaried employees (15%) than of 30-49 (10.7%) or 50+ (5%) groups, more women over 50 were self-employed (with no employees) than either of the other age groups.

·         In comparing salaried employee positions of the women interviewed, jobs paying >500 were solely in the government sector. Ten of the 16 jobs that paid less than 58 cedis were in the private informal sector, while private formal work fell in ranges in between. So, the author concludes that government jobs are the best paying.

·         Again in comparing salaried employee positions, Much more women in the 18-29 age group work in the informal sector (44.8%) than in the government sector (27.6%), or private formal sector (27.6%). 100% of the women over 50, and 60.9% of the women 30-49 worked in the government sector.

While these highlighted findings seem to indicate that education does not necessarily indicate employment for women in Ghana, I believe there are some additional points to consider. "Self-employed without employees" was the highest form of employment for women across the board, but a definition of this type of work was not given. It could simply be selling a few household items to neighbors and friends, which does not necessarily indicate high earnings or sense of empowerment. The article noted that the government sector jobs have been decreasing over the years, and given this fact, experience in that sector, rather than education, may be a more important factor in determining employment.  In concluding the article, the author does not suggest that education is unimportant for empowerment, but that education alone will not result in empowerment. Noting that it is a “key ingredient,” she adds that “context is key” in determining women’s empowerment.  In the case of Ghana, more access to public jobs and private jobs that meet the “conditions of decent work as stipulated by the ILO” are needed in order for empowering employment to even be available to women.

This article broadened my perspective on female empowerment in Ghana. I have heard over and over the mantra that education is key to empowerment. Reading this article made me realize that while education is still important, structural issues in a country are also a dominant aspect of determining whether good jobs are even available to women, or men.  This does not discourage me from supporting education for women and girls as a means to empowerment because I believe the more educated a population is, the more they will push structural change.  A recent article I read (http://www.modernghana.com/news/375995/1/karbo-charges-you-must-be-militant-and-fearless.html) about the youth political movement in Ghana I believe illustrates this point; it is the educated youth of the country that are striving for political reform. Our group project goal of continuing to empower the women involved can involve not only encouragement obtain education but other focuses such as ways to navigate structural constraints on employment. 

The second article I read, “Utilizing Social Work Skills to Enhance Entrepreneurship Training for Women: A Ghanaian Perspective” (http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/doi/full/10.1080/10705420802473642), discussed a specific entrepreneurship exchange project in Ghana.  Ten Ghanaian women were selected from over 20 by an advisory board of social work faculty, staff, students, and community representatives in the U.S. and Ghana.  These women then participated in entrepreneurship training in the U.S. where they also discussed what they felt would be important for continued training in Ghana.  Most notably, the participants expressed their desire to have a structure that reduced barriers stemming from the blurred boundaries of women’s expectations entrepreneurially and financially, with their social and familial ones.  Lack of separation of business funds with family funds was seen as the main reason for failure in women’s entrepreneurial attempts. Lack of networking and collaboration between women was also seen as a weak point.

Before beginning the program, the social workers spent time learning about the Ghanaian cultural and historical context that would affect female entrepreneurs in Ghana. The trainers then used this information to develop the entrepreneurship courses from an empowerment, strengths focused perspective. It was important to take into account that in Ghana women have a significant role in the family financial structure, which again tends to overlap their business finances and distract from business demands. Taking this into account, the program focused on social, not only financial strategies for entrepreneurship.

The two main focuses of the program were development of a business plan and building of a support network. A “Readiness Assessment” was used to address business planning, and a social-relations eco-map to identify possible support. Thus, the program not only focused on individual strengths, but the development of relationships and collaboration to stimulate empowerment.

After the program the women reported on their confidence in their ability to develop a business plan. Before, 33% rated themselves good-excellent, but after over 75% rated their ability good-excellent.

Two and a half years later, the trainers were able to find 3 women who participated in the training and shared their success stories. All three were engaged in entrepreneurship with varying levels of success, but all felt the training had been useful, particularly the eco-map training on building community and connection to support business.  In their conclusion, the authors highlight the importance of cultural understanding and participation of the trainees in developing the program, and the significance of not only business strategy, but social skills of networking and communication. 

An interesting note at the end of this article was that while higher level so education do create an easier transition into entrepreneurship, people higher levels of education are less present in entrepreneurship. However, it did note that higher levels of education were correlated with higher income from entrepreneurship. This information somewhat answered the question that arose from reading the previous article, which found that more uneducated women were participating in the self-employment than educated women. The previous article used this information to suggest that education does not necessarily promote empowerment for women, however with the fact that self-employment may have lower income levels than formal employment may indicate why fewer people with higher levels of education engage in self-employment. 

While I wish this article had provided a broader scope of findings (perhaps the context of this study within the larger Ghanaian female entrepreneurial arena), I thought the approach was thorough and effective, and was particularly interested in the focus on community/relationship building as a means to bolster entrepreneurship. I think this applies directly to our project with the women of "Club 21." One important thing to focus on is  building and strengthening a sense of community among these women so that they have a  network which continues to provide support and a foundation for empowerment.