Women's group POWA condemns gender-based abuse aimed at First Lady and ex-Second Lady

Pinned summary · as of 04:21

A women's advocacy body, POWA, has asked Ghanaians to stop hurling insults and mockery at Lordina Mahama, the First Lady, and Samira Bawumia, who was Second Lady until recently. In a statement issued on Tuesday, 29 September, the group said the treatment of the two goes beyond normal party rivalry. It also invited both women to open a wider dialogue on solidarity among women in politics.

What we know

• POWA put out its statement on Tuesday, 29 September. It was signed by the group's founder and president, Dr Victoria Lakshmi Hamah, and it criticised rising personal attacks, insults and mockery aimed at Ms Mahama and Ms Bawumia.
• POWA said the abuse is not just party-political banter. In its view it shows a habit of shaming prominent women, and that erodes their dignity and their role in politics.
• The group said women may belong to rival parties and disagree sharply without becoming enemies. It also stressed that it does not want to protect either woman from fair public scrutiny, because women in office must answer for their words, actions and policies, but it drew a line between such accountability and humiliation or misogyny.
• POWA argued that when women spend political energy fighting each other, attention moves away from deeper inequalities. Its list ran from thin female representation in politics and economic inequality to violence against women and girls, uneven access to opportunities, unpaid care work and obstacles to decision-making.
• The group asked women's rights organisations, civil society and the wider public to refuse to treat gendered insults against women in public life as normal. It also asked men who back equality to reject such attacks and urged political actors to show that competition can go hand in hand with respect for women's dignity.
• POWA appealed to Ms Mahama and Ms Bawumia to think about leading a wider discussion on solidarity among politically active women across party divides, saying such solidarity does not demand that they agree politically. “Ghana needs more women at the table. It needs women who can disagree without destroying one another,” Dr Hamah said.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

• ?
  The description of the remarks aimed at the two women as gendered mockery is POWA's own characterisation and has not been independently established.

Why it matters for Ghana

Public debate in Ghana is often heated around election cycles, and how leaders and their supporters speak about women in the public eye can shape who is willing to enter politics. POWA's appeal puts pressure on political parties, commentators and social media users to separate criticism of policy from abuse. It also raises the issue of women's representation in decision-making, which affects how issues such as violence against women and unpaid care work get onto the national agenda.