Participation of women in local governance in the Ashanti Mampong municipality

Abstract

The study examined the factors that prevented women from actively participating in local level governance and politics in the Ashanti Mampong Municipality in the Ashanti Region. To be able to get the views of a cross section of women on the issue, 230 respondents comprising university lecturers, tutors from Colleges of Education, political party activists, nurses and teachers took part in the study. A self-administered questionnaire, which also served as an interview guide in some instances was the instrument used for data collection. Analysis of data was done manually and electronically. The electronic analysis was done with the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) version 12.0. Results of the study showed that the factors that militated against women’s low participation in politics and governance were political, social, economic and cultural. Among the militating factors were inadequate party support, such as limited financial support for women candidates and minimum networking among women within their party. Others were lack of independent decision-making in party politics, women’s lack of confidence to run for elections, lack of avenues for orienting young women toward political life and time management constraints. Furthermore, it was found that lack of financial support and cultural barriers were among the factors that prevented women to exercise rights that laws had provided for them. In effect, it was recommended that affirmative action policies should be used by government and political parties to give meaning to women’s participation in politics and governance.