Barriers to the participation of women in community development process in rural Ghana: a regression analysis

ABSTRACT

Women across the world face a myriad of barriers in every sphere of their socio-economic life, negatively affecting their ability to utilise available societal resources to achieve their full potential. They are often relegated to the background when it comes to participation in community development and decision-making. The present study seeks to examine the relative strength of barriers to women’s involvement in the community development processes in rural Ghana. A multistage sampling technique was used to recruit 210 women from three rural communities in Ghana. A questionnaire comprising a series of scales was used to collect the data. The study found that the most critical barriers faced by women in rural Ghana include the patriarchal norms of Ghanaian society, as well as behavioural, and idiosyncratic patterns associated with their socialisation. The study recommends the provision of opportunities to communities to be able to empower and encourage themselves to make the cultural shifts necessary to overcome and address the key barriers women face. Community development processes must incorporate meaningful participatory approaches geared towards greater equality, freedom, and advancement of local community members, especially women.

KEYWORDS:

• Community development
• barriers
• rural Ghana
• women
• participation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles Gyan

Dr Charles Gyan holds a PhD in Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Master of Philosophy degree in Social Work from the University of Ghana. He is an Assistant Professor of social work and social policy at the McGill School of Social Work. He is a fellow of several Canadian research centres including the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa (TISCA), and the Manulife Centre for Community Health Research. His practice experience has been in the areas of community organising, social policy analysis, and programme development and evaluation. Dr Gyan blends academic and research interests with his interest and commitment to Social policy change, transnational social work practice, and community development.

Maya Malik

Maya Malik is a doctoral student at McGill School of Social Work researching how to utilise arts-based Youth-Led Participatory Research (YPAR) methods to work with young Black American girls who have been justice-involved to improve educational intervention programmes. Maya is a researcher with the McGill Global Child Research Group for the Participatory Methods Axis and also at Berkman Klein Center for Internet in Society in their Youth and Media core. Maya recently participated in an experimental research sprint at Berkman focusing on education during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and was involved in a round table with the Colombian Government to consult on their recent Youth and AI Ethics Report. Maya is currently working with their partner to apply critical race theory and posthumanist ideas to combat epistemicide of nonwestern knowledge and to contribute to knowledge production around racial equity and well-being for Black Americans and all marginalised communities. Maya also works as a consultant focused on nonprofit programme evaluation, qualitative data collection (focus groups and interviews), analysis, and participatory research methods working with youth.

Aisha Siddique

Dr Aisha Siddique is a researcher at the University of Regina. Her research interests lie in Human Development and Family Studies.