CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

         Background of the Study

In the past three decades, the debate on the role of women in societies and their participation in economic activity has sparked a lot of controversy. There are those, who passionately argue that women are by nature nurturers and they should, therefore, maintain the domestic roles of childbearing and homemaking. It is there that their greatest pleasure and achievements should lie (Deckard,

1983). Borne of this conversation is the modern-day progressive advocacy by Civil Societies (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Governments for the inclusion of women, as well as ensuring equality of both sexes, in all aspects of socio-economic life.

It is suggested that in pre-colonial times, gender relations ensured that men and women had different but equal roles, and worked in tandem to realise the economic empowerment and independence of both sexes. According to scholars of this school of thought, a major reason that led to the confusion of the significance of women in the economic sphere is the prejudice about the African woman by the expatriates, coupled with our significant lack of adequate records to refute this notion. European travellers projected onto the African society their belief of relegating women to the ‘delicate’ sphere or domestic life, while their men built nations and empires (Aidoo, 1985).

On the other hand, other scholars argue that rather than creating gender inequalities, colonisation in British West Africa merely reinforced them (Bakare-Yusuf, 2003). In this era, policies were already

designed to assign women domesticated roles that matched the traditional requirements. In the economic activity arena for instance, the colonial state disregarded the belief that native Gold Coast women should participate in work outside the home and placed women in exclusively domestic roles. Within the home, the likelihood of a young female gaining entry into an educational institution was low (Bakare-Yusuf, 2003). Even if such a young lady would be so fortunate as to be educated, she would receive an education that emphasised more domestic than technical skills. It was the latter that gave more opportunity for formal sector employment (Graham, 1971). The select few who made it to the formal sector had to resign due to various reasons such as getting married and conceiving a child (Tsikata, 2013).