Editorial News of Tuesday, 3 July 2001

Source: --

Gender quota not best way

The Ghanaian Times reports that Mr J.B. da Rocha, a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), has said that the demand by gender advocates for a special quota for women to be able to enter certain institutions, is not good enough.

Such demands give the female gender a more inferior status since the idea is that without this special quota, women cannot measure up to standards in society, Mr da Rocha said in a lecture on building a culture of democracy and respect for human rights, organized by IEA in Accra on Sunday.

Mr da Rocha said "affirmative action" cannot be achieved if from the onset, women take an inferiority stand by demanding a special quota.

"You need to crawl your way into the system since there are equal opportunities," he stated. He therefore advised gender advocates to educate and encourage women on the need to seek education since that is the only viable way to be successful.