WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT NEEDS A MULTI FACETTED APPROACH - NANA KONADU DECLARES AT AUCC

Former First lady of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has stated that “a multi- facetted approach is needed to make women empowerment a reality”. She said this at the African University College of Communications (AUCC) on Monday, 17th January, 2011 during the launch of the women’s week celebration organized by the AUCC Students Representative Council
The theme for the launch was “Empowering today’s woman for the challenges of the 21st Century.”    
Mrs. Rawlings, who was the guest speaker for the programme, stated that although there had been some positive strides towards the attainment of gender equality in Ghana, “there is no systematic approach towards the empowerment of women in Ghana”. She therefore advised the female students to seek for empowerment wherever they found themselves since empowerment issues were inherent in politics, marriage, culture and tradition, religion, education, business and health. She took the opportunity to advise the ladies not to shy away from politics and current affairs since their very survival hang on the decisions made by politicians.
Mrs. Rawlings stressed on the need for women to seek for education and knowledge in order to identify and understand the issues that confronted them and find solutions to them. “Use your God given talents to bring positive change wherever you find yourself.” she advised.
She indicated that one of UNICEF’s key messages on the empowerment of women stipulates that “women and children are the double dividends of gender equality”. She emphasized that gender equality was an indispensable tool needed to equip women to lead productive lives which would ultimately benefit their children (male or female).
She further encouraged the students to endeavor to be confident and proactive after they had been armed with the necessary education and knowledge since knowledge was more beneficial when applied.
Lastly, she emphasized that women empowerment did not mean that women wanted to have power over men but it rather meant that women wanted partnership with men because although women constituted more than half of the world’s population, they wielded only 10% of the world’s income and a paltry 1% of the means of production.
Other speakers at the progamme included the chairman of the launch, AUCC’s Executive Vice President, Prof. E. Ofori Akyea who likened the empowerment of women to “a rooster that belongs to one family but crows for the whole village”. This proverb according to the learned Professor simply meant that the entire nation would be better off when women were empowered.