Abstract:
The study focused on the perceptions of the people in the Techiman traditional area
about gender inequality and poverty. The study was motivated by the fact that not
enough literature is available on the subject in Ghana and the Techiman traditional
area in particular. The major issues the research investigated were socio-cultural
structures and institutions that promote gender inequality in Techiman Traditional
Area, people‟s perceptions about these socio – cultural structures and institutions as a
push factor for unequal distribution of resources, people‟s perceptions about existing
national laws, policies and programs that are meant to protect and empower women in
the Area, and appropriate strategies that can be adopted to address gender inequality
for progress in the area. The study adopted the mixed method design. Specifically, a
convergent parallel mixed method design was used for the study. The population of
study, however, consisted of 160 people made up of all market women and men,
Queen mothers and Chiefs of different socio-cultural backgrounds and orientation in
the area. The two sampling techniques employed for the study are the simple random
sampling and Purposive sampling. Ten (10) respondents comprising five (5) Queens
and five (5) Chiefs were purposively sampled for the interview. A total of One
Hundred and fifty (150) respondents comprising market women and men were also
selected using the simple random sampling techniques for the study, where their
views on how they perceive gender inequality and poverty were explored. It emerged
that there are still some socio-cultural practices that contribute to the inequality
among men and women in the society. Another finding that came out of this survey
was that majority of the respondent were not aware of the existing national laws,
policies and reforms, including constitutional provision for gender equity under the
law. The results also show that most of the respondents were not aware that, the
words increasing poverty has a direct link to gender inequality which is as a result of
these socio-cultural structures and institutions which under pins women‟s
development. The study recommended among other things that there is the need to
educate the public most especially traditional leaders on cultural practices that
deepens gender inequality, improve gender mainstreaming through the establishment
of appropriate policy and guidelines that enable women and men to have equal
opportunities in resources allocation and management and to share their views and
concerns in decision-making especially on gender issues, government, nongovernmental
agencies and other stake holder must also create people‟s awareness on
the link between gender inequality and poverty. Institutions like CHRAJ must
establish strict measures to punish offenders of constitutionally prohibited cultural
practices to serve as deterrent to others. Recommendations were also made to other
researchers who would want to conduct studies in the area on gender inequality to try
and look into the role of community leaders (especially the men) in ensuring gender
equality to eradicate poverty in our societies and also gender inequality from religious
perspective (Christianity, Traditional and Islamic religions).
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Social Studies Education,
Faculty of Social Science, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Social Studies Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
JUNE, 2018