Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Education for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Convener: Kathy Mumford, Australia

If you educate a man you educate an individual and if you educate a woman you educate a nation: the role of the woman with higher education as a catalyst of change in Africa in general, and in Ghana in particular
Mildred Asmah, International IFUW Member, Ghana

Nothing is simple anymore, nothing is stable, we must not only change, but create change and development. For development, education is crucial: it creates choices and opportunities, reduces the burdens of poverty and disease, and gives a stronger voice in society. It is particularly important for women in countries like Ghana where women, compared to men, have heavier burdens, lower rates of utilization of productive resource and poorer literacy and numeracy rates. Yet high or excessive education is believed to endanger women's social and moral life (Ramadas, 1990 and Anarmuah–Mensdah, 1995). Women’s education is often, therefore, oriented towards teaching them to be better housewives and mothers rather than equipping them with skills and training necessary for them to hold on their own in a rapidly changing world and act as catalysts or role models for change.

In many developing countries, there is lower participation of females in formal education, with a drastic decrease in participation as females move from primary to tertiary levels. This results from the more general constraints women face in education. Although female students are statistically (and physically) visible, their problems and needs often remain invisible. The paper examines some of these issues: sexual harassment, gender discrimination, coping with multiple roles, career choices, exclusion from science and technology. Finally, it suggests measures whereby authorities – and women with higher education – can bring about change at the least cost, utilizing the available human resource potential to provide multi‑disciplinary programmes in subjects such peace education, e‑based/distance learning, cultural diversity, family life education, science and technology, and population studies.

Mildred Asmah is Senior Assistant Registrar in the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, West-Africa, where she gained a Masters degree in Higher Education Administration. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, and an MSc(Economics) in Social Development Planning and Man Management from the University of Wales, Swansea.