Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has urged women to mentor younger women, reiterating that mentorship is crucial for fostering confidence and leadership.
“Let us learn to mentor, not compulsory by force. But this is important. And when you think that, oh, it’s lonely at the top, why is it lonely at the top? Because you are the only one,” the Vice President stated in her remarks at a day’s workshop organised by the Presidency to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD).
“What are you doing to bring others along with you? That should be our charge. What are we doing to bring others along? That way, it will not be so lonely,” she said.
She said women didn’t just appear in the world; they have been there for a long time.
She noted that if one looks at the history of the global south, one will notice that generally, they had never even had the luxury of a term for a woman who doesn’t do anything.
“Look in your families. Look around you. Tell me how many of us are grounded in idyllic retirement? How many do you see? So where did all of this come from? They came from some of us,” the Vice President stated.
She added: “And I make myself one of the troublemakers in looking at our curricula and fashioning philosophical thoughts of looking at texts, not from our perspectives. I’m raising all of this for us to think again about what we conceive, what the perceptionists become, what the perceptions become, and what the conclusions become.”
The Vice President said that if one looked within culture, one would find out that there was not a single profession that women did not engage in.
“Was it healing? Did we have women healers? And if you heal, it means you know how to prepare the medications. So, did we have women pharmacists, doctors, nurses? So if you go to the hospital today and you don’t find us, you need to ask yourself, what went wrong?”, she quizzed.
She said: “Were we in the judiciary? Did our queenmothers have their own courts? It means they were raised to understand the law so they could practice the same.
“So, if you can’t find us in certain areas now, you need to ask yourself, what went wrong? Were we not an industry, preparing the corn from the corn to the corn beer, from the millet to pitot?
“So, if you don’t find us in the science labs wearing coats, don’t tell me that girls don’t study science. Aren’t we traders? If you don’t understand math, how can you survive as a trader?
The Vice President said a look at the statistics of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examination results would lead to certain conclusions about the performance of women in mathematics.
“You need to ask yourself, what went wrong? Which area do we lack?” she asked, and emphasised that there were gender role differentiations.
Citing the fishing industry as a case in point, the Vice President said: “When the men spend three days on the sea, there’s a reason for it”.
“If we are the ones taking care of the babies, they couldn’t go on the sea with us.”
She said it was not a differentiation made on the basis of wealth, especially in monetary terms, declaring that it was a wealth for the family.
“And the moment the fish hits the beach, the fish doesn’t carry itself home. Who does that? Who preserves the fish? Who can smoke fish so well that the pieces at the top, and the pieces in the middle, and the pieces at the bottom brand the same way? This is not thermodynamics. What is it? So don’t tell me that women don’t know physics. We love physics.”
