Accra, Dec. 11, GNA - Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, Head of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), on Monday said affirmative action is needed to support women into leadership positions.

"Affirmative action should just be a window of opportunity, giving us just the chance we need to break into leadership. "Let it be that, not a showcase or a shop window in which clothes' dummies are placed for exhibition purpose," Dr Ofei-Aboagye said in presentation at the 21st Speaker's Breakfast Forum, in Accra. The Forum is one of the ways in which Parliament interacts and solicits views of civil society on issues of national importance. Titled "The Advocacy for Women to Leadership Positions: Combining Affirmative Action with Merit", the presentation called for public education on affirmative action and clear dispassionate discussion on why it was in the national interest to provide a more even playing field for women, who constituted a disadvantaged section of the population. Despite improvement in women's participation in decision-making and public life in Ghana in the recent past, it still lags behind that of men's.

For instance, the year 2000 Parliamentary Election resulted in 18 women being elected in the then 200- seat Parliament, but the 2004 Elections had 25 women being elected out of 230 parliamentarians. Also, between 1997 and 2004, there were 11 women out of 110 District Chief Executives (DCEs) which rather decreased to six between 2001 and 2004; and as at February 2006, 12 female DCEs had been appointed, one of which was for a Metropolitan Assembly.

However, between 1997 and 2004, there were two women in a Cabinet of 19 members, but now there is none, and also out of the 10 Regional Ministers, only two were women in the 1997 to 2000 period. Now there is none and there is only two women Deputy Regional Ministers in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions.

With backing of constitutional provisions, Dr Ofei-Aboagye underlined the role of women in leadership positions as a right, but pointed out that women's participation in leadership had been affected by factors such as lack of confidence, apathy among women, inadequate exposure to public life and the demands of women's reproductive roles. "Even where women have indicated willingness and self-confidence to stand for public office, their efforts had been thwarted by male dominated and administrative structures", Dr Ofei-Aboagye said. She placed affirmative action alongside the system of appointment on merit called meritocracy, and argued that while there were various advantages associated with the merit system, including protecting public servants from political influences, they did not always ensure that all sections of the population were adequately represented in public life. The Head of the ILGS called for the application of affirmative action in a meaningful way that challenged women not to take leadership opportunities for granted or to accept mediocrity against set targets and with clear and consistent efforts at monitoring the process and assessing the impacts of the opportunities.

Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes, the Speaker of Parliament, said there must be a more vigorous advocacy for the 21st century woman to assume more challenging leadership roles in every sphere of human endeavour.

"Every little effort by all of us at every given opportunity will inevitably go a long way to realize this noble goal," Mr Sekyi-Hughes said.