Gender inequality and poverty, perception of people in Techiman traditional area of Ghana

Abstract

The study focused on the perceptions of the people in the Techiman traditional area about gender inequality and poverty. The study was motivated by the fact that not enough literature is available on the subject in Ghana and the Techiman traditional area in particular. The major issues the research investigated were socio-cultural structures and institutions that promote gender inequality in Techiman Traditional Area, people‟s perceptions about these socio – cultural structures and institutions as a push factor for unequal distribution of resources, people‟s perceptions about existing national laws, policies and programs that are meant to protect and empower women in the Area, and appropriate strategies that can be adopted to address gender inequality for progress in the area. The study adopted the mixed method design. Specifically, a convergent parallel mixed method design was used for the study. The population of study, however, consisted of 160 people made up of all market women and men, Queen mothers and Chiefs of different socio-cultural backgrounds and orientation in the area. The two sampling techniques employed for the study are the simple random sampling and Purposive sampling. Ten (10) respondents comprising five (5) Queens and five (5) Chiefs were purposively sampled for the interview. A total of One Hundred and fifty (150) respondents comprising market women and men were also selected using the simple random sampling techniques for the study, where their views on how they perceive gender inequality and poverty were explored. It emerged that there are still some socio-cultural practices that contribute to the inequality among men and women in the society. Another finding that came out of this survey was that majority of the respondent were not aware of the existing national laws, policies and reforms, including constitutional provision for gender equity under the law. The results also show that most of the respondents were not aware that, the words increasing poverty has a direct link to gender inequality which is as a result of these socio-cultural structures and institutions which under pins women‟s development. The study recommended among other things that there is the need to educate the public most especially traditional leaders on cultural practices that deepens gender inequality, improve gender mainstreaming through the establishment of appropriate policy and guidelines that enable women and men to have equal opportunities in resources allocation and management and to share their views and concerns in decision-making especially on gender issues, government, nongovernmental agencies and other stake holder must also create people‟s awareness on the link between gender inequality and poverty. Institutions like CHRAJ must establish strict measures to punish offenders of constitutionally prohibited cultural practices to serve as deterrent to others. Recommendations were also made to other researchers who would want to conduct studies in the area on gender inequality to try and look into the role of community leaders (especially the men) in ensuring gender equality to eradicate poverty in our societies and also gender inequality from religious perspective (Christianity, Traditional and Islamic religions).