2ND NATIONAL FEMINISTS FORUM HELD

Participants at a three-day feminist forum in Accra, Ghana have been sharing their experiences on the challenges and benefits of championing the cause of women and children in the country.

The second National Feminist Forum organized under the auspices of the Network for Women’s Right, (NETRIGHT), and funded by the African Women Development Fund, AWDF, sought to dialogue with feminists and women’s groups across the country on ways to forge a united front in promoting feminism in Ghana and the African continent.

 Feminists are "person[s] whose beliefs and behavior[s] are based on feminism. It was clear at the forum that “feminism” is a set of ideas and a political movement, based on theory and praxis. Feminism analyses the position and situation of women in society, identifies causes and bases of women’s subordination and gender inequalities and organises to struggle for gender equity and equality and a transformation of society to remove all forms of oppression.

Feminists are opposed to domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. In Ghana there is no known feminist groups but individuals within certain identifiable women groups identifies with feminism and the need to champion the cause of women and children.

The term “feminist” is greeted with some stigma in Ghana as captured in the introduction of Dzodzi Tsikata’s presentation at the forum: “The hostility to the term and the insistence that it is foreign and the many misunderstandings about what feminism stands for means that we find it easier or more tactical to call ourselves gender activists, gender experts’ etc. But perhaps if we better understood the traditions of feminism, its evolution over the years, its relevance for us and how we could harness it to transform the lives of women, we would not be so apologetic. In any case, coming to this forum suggests that we at least identify with feminism”.

 The forum sought to demystify negative perceptions about feminists and draw meaning into people who take interest in the safety, independence, rights, and protection of women and children. A movement of feminists was formed at the end of the forum to help bring together and network people who identify with feminism to chart a common cause. Speakers including Professor Takyiwaa Manuh took participants through topics like “Feminism and Identity politics”.