There is a time for daring and a time for caution. Women’s lives matter and after over 110 years of celebrating the International Women’s Day, 2021 is the time for women to dare to take a seat at the table to change the world. Women and girls should seize this coronavirus era as a catalyst for women to be more daring.
The time is now for women to stop complaining, stop wasting time, stop procrastinating, stop the excuses and take action for leadership. This year is a new beginning for women to come out in their numbers to take their seats at the table of decision making and for men to support them.
The fact that Women need to be celebrated, their voices heard with equitable representation cannot be over emphasized as it is long overdue.
The Coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated clearly the dynamic leadership roles that women can play especially as demonstrated in the significantly better Covid-19 outcomes of countries that were led by women like Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Finland’s Sanna Marin (source: Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum).
As countries are recovering from the pandemic, women must seriously seize the opportunity to actualize the vision behind the theme for International Women’s Day 2021
“Women In Leadership : Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world”. Action must be taken by women and girls with immediate effect to build and shape an equal future in a Covid-19 world. #choosetochallege should not just be a hash tag for a campaign message but a call to action for women to be bold, not to cower or be afraid but to be confident and daring to take their seats at the table of leadership at all levels. For equity and equality, huge numbers of women must be more proactive in reaching the apex level, with aggressive collective actions for closing the inter generational gap, mentoring and increasing the number of girls climbing and scaling academic heights for the present and the future.
According to the World Bank collection of development indicators, Ghana labor force, females constitute 46.44% of the total labor force. Out of the total number of women which is 50.5% of the 2000 population, 4% of women are still left to climb the labor force ladder to make a difference in our country Ghana. For Ghana to recover from the COVID- 19 pandemic and for growth, increased representation of women and young girls in leadership roles, participating meaningfully and effectively is required. Women cannot be left out or behind, and cannot wait to be called to the table. To walk the talk, they should avail themselves in large numbers to be a part of the leadership shaping Ghana to meet the expectations of our people and to build the Ghana we can believe in and be proud of.
The potential for women to change our world is huge and in recognition of this, the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation celebrates all women and girls and challenge you to dare to choose to take a seat at the table of leadership. Do not be afraid if you are called names, or give up because you are disrespected or insulted. The sky is not your limit, go for the moon and be the shining star that you were born to be, because you can. We say ayekoo!! to all women and girls as we celebrate the 2021 International Women’s Day.
InternationalWomensDay
ChooseToChallenge
WomenInLeadership
DareToTakeASeatAtTheTable
Signed
Otiko Afisah Djaba
Executive Director