Empowering Ghanaian women for community development: Revisiting the two imperatives of the practical and the strategic

Abstract

The paper presents a case for the consideration of both practical and strategic needs when empowering women for community development. Using conceptual analysis the complex and multiple roles of Ghanaian women are examined resulting in revelations that point to compromises in women's empowerment initiatives. The revelations demonstrate that women's empowerment initiatives have resulted in marked improvements in women's conditions but only dismal improvements in their status, as women remain in subjugated positions in society. The persistence of women's subjugated positioning in the socio-economic system of Ghana is attributed to the limited framing of ongoing initiatives that only stress the practical needs of women without similar emphasis on strategic interest. Consequently, an assertion is made that ongoing initiatives focus only on enabling women to function in their traditional subjugated locations without fostering the kinds of change that will transform their positioning in society. Evidently, the so-called women's empowerment has occurred in sites of subjugation rather than in preferred transformative sites. Arguing that the pursuit of strategic needs has relevance not only for women but also for families and communities and even national development, a case is made for women's empowerment initiatives to take more seriously question of strategic relevance.