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20.500.12592/6fsr31

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3 Feb 2023

Instead of staying home to take care of her children and her husband she is going into politics.” That unfortunate remark illustrated one of the many examples of the social cost women face in trying to run for elected office. [...] The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in election years, conducts a study called “Matters of Concern to the Ghanaian Voter.” From the information publicly available, the first of the studies was done in 2008. [...] Starting in 2012, the study asked about the willingness of Ghanaians to vote for a female candidate as a member of parliament as well as president. [...] The percentage remained unchanged significantly in the 2016 study (68%) but improved significantly in 2020 with as many as seventy-seven percent (77%) saying they were willing to vote for a female candidate as member of parliament. [...] From the NCCE survey I referenced, some of the reasons citizens give for why they are unwilling to vote for a woman as a member of parliament or president is because “women in high positions tend to be arrogant and disrespectful, a woman cannot cope with the pressure associated with holding public office, men can do a better job, and a woman cannot take bold decisions”.
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2
Published in
Ghana