Dr. Frances Dufie Azumah, a Gender Activist, has challenged female university students to be focused and aspire for excellence in their career development.

“Female university students have no excuse to fail in view of the huge investment being made to get them the best of training to acquire the needed skills and knowledge for productive lives”, she noted.

Career women, she noted, were a motivation and also served as role models for the younger generation and must, therefore, not leave anything to chance in their education.

Dr. Azumah, a Gender and Development Studies Lecturer, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi at the launch of the Eagle Mentorship Programme, a project by the Faculty of Social Sciences to mentor young women.

“Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity, Make it Happen”, was the theme.

The Programme would see its Ambassadors, drawn from the KNUST College of Arts and Social Sciences, embarking on outreach programmes in communities and schools to create awareness about women empowerment.

It is an initiative by the Faculty of Social Sciences to raise the status of women in the society to improve their living conditions.

Dr. Azumah said the advancement in education and technology had in recent times seen many more women break societal and socio-cultural barriers to compete with their male counterparts in most fields of endeavours, which were hitherto considered as preserve for men.

“Many more women are reaching greater heights in their chosen careers and it is expected of them to serve as icons to less fortunate up-and-coming girls to defy the odds and develop their inherent potentials”, the Gender Activist said.