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Empowering Ghanaian women for community development: Revisiting the two imperatives of the practical and the strategic

Ghana Journal of Development Studies

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Field Value
 
Title Empowering Ghanaian women for community development: Revisiting the two imperatives of the practical and the strategic
 
Creator Apusigah, Agnes Atia
 
Subject


 
Description The paper presents a case for the consideration of both practical and strategic needs when empowering women for community development. Using conceptual analysis the complex and multiple roles of Ghanaian women are examined resulting in revelations that point to compromises in women's empowerment initiatives. The revelations demonstrate that women's empowerment initiatives have resulted in marked improvements in women's conditions but only dismal improvements in their status, as women remain in subjugated positions in society.
The persistence of women's subjugated positioning in the socio-economic system of Ghana is attributed to the limited framing of ongoing initiatives that only stress the practical needs of women without similar emphasis on strategic interest. Consequently, an assertion is made that ongoing initiatives focus only on enabling women to function in their traditional subjugated locations without fostering the kinds of change that will transform their positioning in society. Evidently, the so-called women's empowerment has occurred in sites of subjugation rather than in preferred transformative sites. Arguing that the pursuit of strategic needs has relevance not only for women but also for families and communities and even national development, a case is made for women's empowerment initiatives to take more seriously question of strategic relevance.
Ghana Journal of Development Studies Vol.1(1) 2004: 4-24
 
Publisher Faculty of Integrated Development Studies, University for Development Studies, Ghana
 
Contributor
 
Date 2005-07-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article

 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjds/article/view/34997
10.4314/gjds.v1i1.34997
 
Source Ghana Journal of Development Studies; Vol 1, No 1 (2004); 4-24
0855-6768
 
Language eng
 
Relation https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjds/article/view/34997/24918
 
Coverage


 
Rights © 2018 The authors.The Ghana Journal of Development Studies is published twice a year (May & October) by the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies as a service to development related research.No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the written authorisation of the publisher and copyright owner.The content is licensed uder a CC-BY license.