Sexual harassment causing low participation of women in dev't

Participants in a workshop have said sexual harassment should be curbed with swift and stiffer punishment to enable women to pursue their career goals.

They said profiling of women as expendable objects of men’s sexual desire resulting in their rampant harassment at the workplace was a major cause of women’s low participation in national development.

The three-day workshop which is being organised by Action Aid, a non-governmental organization and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and sought to equip the 45 participants with knowledge on women’s rights and decent work.

The participants were drawn from the Greater Accra Regional Branch of Ghana Hairdressers and Beauticians Association (GBA), market women groups and artisan groups.

They called for special arrangements to be made at the workplace to take of women’s needs like rest during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Mr. Emmanual Yabani, Principal Education Officer, Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), appealed to girls to aspire to achieve their career goals.

He urged parents and guardians to instill confidence in the girl-child since that was the first step towards empowerment.

Mr. Yabani urged women in the artisan and trade sectors that are not well educated not to consider their situation as useless but to seek avenues to improve on their circumstances.

“Make most of your situation by developing yourself to be the best in what you do. Try and brainstorm on how to maximise your potential so that one day you would be remembered as the best in the vocation you are in,” he said.