Former Vice Chancellor of the Koforidua Technical University, Prof. Mrs. Smile Dzisi has indicated that gender mainstreaming which addresses the issues of both gender equity and equality should be the concern of all and not just females.
According to her, effective decision making is promoted when men and women are given equal opportunity to contribute to discussions in society.
“For us to achieve gender equity and equality, it is not a woman’s story. It is not only women who should champion it but it should be a concern for both males and females. It is always confused with feminism but that is not it.”
“If we have a meeting and we have only males there we are not going to have effective decision making because it is subjective one way or the other though we have the rules and the statutes there”, she indicated.
To her the way forward in ensuring that males also join in the advocacy for gender equality and equity is sensitization.
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She also noted that the best time to inculcate gender mainstreaming into our society is during the process of socialization in our homes.
“The children that are coming up the way we treat them and the kind of examples we give them in the house is very key. This because what we are having now is a culture that sees men as the decision makers and those that should be at the hem of affairs. It is very difficult to change this mentality. However, to work around this, the sensitization should start from the home. We should not wait till our children get to tertiary institutions before we start teaching them gender mainstreaming”, she urged.
Prof. Mrs Dzisi was speaking at the sixth edition of the monthly Webinar series held by the Centre for Gender, Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD), University of Cape Coast (UCC) yesterday on the theme “Gender Mainstreaming in the Academe”.
On her part, a retired Prof. of Sociology and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at UCC, Prof. Mansa Prah stated that the success of gender mainstreaming in higher educational institutions is dependent on the support of Management.
“Other Universities in this country are encouraged to gender mainstream through donor activity. It is important to note though that gender mainstreaming in higher education cannot take place without the endorsement and cooperation of management”, she said.
Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
