Mrs. Joycelyn Adii, the Bono Regional Director of the Department of Gender, has urged husbands to support their wives in household chores to strengthen family unity and promote socio-economic progress.

Mrs. Adii said many women, especially housewives, denied their husbands sex because they were sometimes over-burdened by households’ chores, and thereby lacked the appetite, unable to fulfill the sexual desires of their husbands.

She said though sex was a consummation of marriage, women who over-worked sometimes lacked the appetite for sex, and, therefore, entreated men to learn and support their wives to wash, cook and clean the house.

Mrs. Adii was speaking at separate sensitization fora on unpaid care work organised by the Global Media Foundation (GLOMeF) at Yawmiri, Wawasua, Nsagobesa and Antwikrom in the Sunyani Municipality.

GLOMeF, a Sunyani-based media advocacy and human rights NGO with support from Plan Ghana, another NGO, as part of its ‘Wise Project’ organised the fora to orient community members and create awareness on the benefits of supporting women’s economic participation.

The WISE project is a women’s economic empowerment project which seeks to promote innovative, integrated and gender transformative business services by improving women’s agency to exercise decisions regarding their participation in economic growth.

 It also sees to women’s increasing productivity, profitability and innovation of women-owned businesses.
Mrs. Adii observed many marriages were on the verge of collapse due to petty marital problems which could easily be tackled and therefore mentioned denial of sex and lack of communication as some of the factors fueling divorce which could be addressed.

“If we want our marriages to stand the test of time then we must try and tackle the issue of unpaid care work which tended to over-burden many women”.

“In fact, a good husband must remain supportive to the wife. Women feel proud, dignified and are submissive when they see their husbands supporting the household’s chores” she stated.

Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Chief Executive Officer of the GLOMeF said children and men were the most affected in families that lacked peace and cohesion, saying “it is always uneasy for some men to return home after work due to family problems in the house”.

He advised men to spend ample time with their wives, communicate and listen to them, and added “women must also endeavour to remain submissive to their husbands too.”

Mr Ahenu said the project was being implemented at communities including Abesim, Adomako, Asufufu, Kwasi-nfum, Benue Nkwanta, Kyeredua, Watchman, Yawsae, all in the Sunyani Municipality.