THEN TIMES (PART II) - iBREAK

Decades of research into intelligence and smartness show that there’s no relationship between intelligence and sex. That is to say females are as intelligent as males and this was not known or upheld then times. Then times girls were known to love cooking and nursing babies, tidying homes and filling all cisterns with water. In the modern then times, girls are known to only love reading and have nothing to do with mathematics and anything that has digits and calculations, and to always be in the supportive roles in groups they find themselves in.

However, the now is beautiful. The now has seen a lot of women in public circles. A lot of women rising up from the stereotypic dust, cleaning themselves and taking to the Iron Thrones. An article not long ago on myjoyonline.com written by Mavis Ampah Simtim-Misa, made my heart merry. It was on the women blazing the trail in Ghana’s telecommunication sector. I was fascinated about it because it was not women in hotel management or catering services as the status quo has been. That is not to say that hotel management and catering services are not important, far from that. But the fact that women are in traditional “male seats” is inspirational.

First on her list was Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, formerly Managing Director of WESTEL and Director of Vodafone Ghana Company Limited. She served as Managing Consultant with N. U. Consult – a firm that provides legal, governance and gender consulting services. She’s a member of the Ghana Bar Association, the International Federation of Women Lawyers, and the Women in Law and Development in Africa and the African Women Lawyers Association. She is currently Ghana’s Minister for Communications and Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency.

Another on the list is Lucy Quist. She is the first female Ghanaian to lead a multinational telecom company. She recently appeared on BBC’s Power Women series as one of the top business women driving transformational change in Africa. Lucy holds a first-class honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of East London. She won the CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year (2014), Telecom CEO of the Year (Ghana ICT and Telecoms Award 2016) and CSR CEO of the Year (Ghana CSR Excellence Awards 2016).

Estelle Akofio-Sowah, Country Manager of Google Ghana who has had 14 years of experience in the internet and business development industry in Ghana, including as the Managing Director of Busy Internet.

Harriet Yartey, country manager for CWG(Computer Ware House Group). The first female to hold such a position. CWG is a leading provider of Information, and Communication Technology solutions services across West, Central, and Eastern Africa. CWG is also a leading cloud services provider, enabling Africa’s SMEs to exploit cloud services for commerce and management. She was the Customer Service Manager for Fairgreen Limited, Head of sales for theSOFTtribe Limited, Account Manager for Vodafone, General Manager for Channel IT and now the country manager of CWG.

Yvette Adounvo Atekpe has been the Regional Managing Director of Internet Solutions since 2008. Yvette has been in the telecommunications and information technology sector for over 20 years. Ms. Atekpe has served on several Boards including the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association (GISPA). She was a member of the National Communication Planning Committee that drafted Ghana’s 1999 Communications Policy and was a member of the Communications Committee on Girls in technology. She currently chairs the board of Internet Solutions Ghana, and serves as Director on the boards of Dimension Data West Africa and Internet Solutions Mozambique. She was awarded the ICT Woman of the Year 2014 and Industry Personality of the Year 2016 at the Ghana Telecom Awards.

The political scenes have names to present. These are women who rubbed shoulders with male counterparts on campaign platforms. When they were placed on the beam balance they outweighed the males in popularity which has a strong correlation with communication of ideas and intents to the people they seek to serve. The Electoral Commissioner, the Chief Justice, and the Attorney General, to mention a few are all females. Female representation in the parliament of Ghana also increased in the current house, rising from 29 to 37 with the youngest MP of the current house being a female.

Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann is a Senior Lecturer and the Foundation Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Effah Kaufmann was named University of Ghana’s Best Teacher for the Sciences in 2009. In 2010 she was elected to represent non-professorial academic staff on the highest decision-making body of the University of Ghana, the University Council, a position she held for four years. In 2011 Dr. Effah Kaufmann was a winner of the prestigious International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation Fellowship. Dr. Effah Kaufmann’s teaching and research focus on Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials and Application of Biomedical Engineering concepts to the solution of problems in the Ghanaian context. She is also keenly interested in Science education at all levels and has been Host/ Quiz Mistress and Consultant of the Ghana National Science & Mathematics Quiz TV Programme since 2006

Names like Prof. Efua Hesse and Joyce Aryee continue to ring in my head.

Prof. Afua Hesse is a woman of many firsts. She was the first female paediatric surgeon in Ghana as well as the first woman surgeon from her alma mater and recently served as President of the Medical Women’s International Association, another first for a Ghanaian in the 91 year history of the Association which is the first International Professional women’s Association.
She was the first female to act as CEO for the Korle bu Teaching Hospital of the Hospital and Director of Medical Affairs and was the first female Honorary Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association. She was also the first female head of the Department of Surgery of the University of Ghana Medical School.

Dr. Joyce Aryee is recognized for having served the Nation of Ghana for more than 40 years in both the public and private sectors. She is the previous Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and was the first woman in Africa to have held that role. She is currently the Executive Director of Salt and Light Ministries.

These two women make me tingle because of how they have excelled despite the very busy schedules they have run all their lives. Dr. Aryee is a reverend minister and Prof. Hesse also is a wife of a reverend minister which we popularly call Osofomaame. They showed that rising in the corporate world does not mean relegating the call of God on your life to the background.

These people all made it like there was no challenge anywhere along the way. One thing that can be found common with them is that they chose to rise above every challenge that came their way. It’s a popular saying that when you encounter a problem you either choose to allow the problem to define you or you let it strengthen you.

Almost all if not all of them and the many others not mentioned have families. Families that they cater for and nurture. Families that require their time and attention and love. One may not be privy to what happens in their families but whatever the case they do some things that some women spend sleepless nights thinking about – whether to choose either side of the coin, of taking care of a family or taking hold of an office and managing it to the best of states, or drop the whole coin in your purse and decide to best both.

I personally find this encouraging. It tells me I can do more, more than just read something small and spend the rest of the time watching movies and series. More than matching my fears instead of besting and bursting them. To all ladies, young and old, still figuring out what to do and already into what you have planned to do, this is a personal line that drives me: “why can’t I do it too?”
Anytime someone tells me how an exam was difficult in their time and how about 70% of the candidates did not pass, I tell myself the 30% who passed were also in the class. Why can’t I be part of that? Even if it is 0.001% I can and will be part of that.

These mothers and aunties are showing us a different picture, they are telling a different story and actually they are calling on all females inadvertently to rise. Not just to rise and know you have rights. Not to rise and know that females are not to be bullied in marriages. Not to rise and raise awareness on the fact that females can exist independent of males. But rise and know you have capabilities that cannot be buried, gifts that the world cannot afford to miss, ideas and visions that will drive civilization to the next level. Fighting for rights is good, impacting lives where you are with what you have is better.

My Bible tells me that women are specially endowed and so traditions of men have tried to suppress them and what they carry. The woman that sees her worth and breaks out shines forth her maker’s glory. The Bible would be incomplete without Eve. It would be incomplete without Rahab, Naomi, Ruth, Mary, Priscilla, Anna, Esther, Deborah and even Jezebel. I believe there is a reason for which their stories appear in the Bible especially with the Bible coming from a strong oriental culture where women are not named. Whatever they did whether good or bad is for our learning

There is this popular adage that what men can do women can do better but I end with this quote from Timothy Leary, “Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition”. Then times when women seen to be good for cooking and baby making, the times they were believed to not have anything to offer, those times, ARE OVER! It may not be reflecting on a gross scale in the country now. That means you have a role to play – 1. To be the best of what you are about as a female and 2. To encourage all people you encounter to give the females a chance. Together, some years later, you will be bold enough to say you had a hand in inspiring some young ladies to a feat higher that you dreamt for yourself.

Written by: Kenneth Attobrah
Edited by Daniella Arnan-Nkansah