I can only imagine what being a Ghanaian woman is like… because it’s hard enough being a white woman in Ghana…

As I was trying (trying being the operative word here), to fetch water (as it seems that most of the water ends up on me rather than staying in the bucket), I was called over to hold a new baby. (I think that the villagers think I’m a good luck charm… as they hand me children to hold they always say “you will take it with you to America and make it very rich”). After a few minutes of me holding the baby, the father (or I’m assuming he was as he was the one who handed me the baby) of the child looks at me and then says, “We should start, right now.” I looked at him in total confusion… “Start what?” I said. “Having babies,” he responded calmly.

I about blew up… I quickly handed the baby back, and looked at them man (who I’m sure I’ve met before but I couldn’t tell you his name) and told him I wasn’t in Africa to have children, his or anyone else’s and walked off.

From my personal observations it seems to me that the women do practically everything in Ghana… from raising the children, to cooking the food, washing the clothing, tending to the farm, and working whatever odd jobs that they may do (running a little store, selling veggies at the market, being a tailor, or a hairdresser, selling prepared food on the road side). The men have little to do with the children. They may hold the baby from time to time and scold it if it doesn’t bring it something but primarily the child rearing is up the mother.

I was talking to a seamstress friend they other day, and she was telling me that she will be getting a new intern working for her to learn how to sew, but she turned to look at me and said “but now I must find her a place to live near my shop, because her husband wants her to only go to and from work and not associate with other people. Her husband is afraid that another man will try to take her away from him.”

The men are in complete control of everything… EVERYTHING!

Out of the two schools that I teach at there is only ONE-woman teacher. I’m so proud of her… but when I go to the school, she is still serving the men their food, and catering to their needs. But she asked me the other day how to find a ‘white husband’… And as I started to inquire about her life I found out that she is married to a police officer in Hohoe, and she has a son who is about 1 years old… but she is trying to divorce her husband (yes divorce is still possible in this male dominating country) because he physically abuses her. She then continued to tell me how she went to tell her husband’s boss and report the abuse. The chief of police looked at her and said that he wouldn't write a report because it would look bad on the husbands’ behalf. So she will just have to deal with it.

Deal with it… most women here just have to deal with it… deal with the abuse, being a baby machine, being totally submissive to the husband, dealing with the lack of respect.

This is a male dominating country and women are still required to do what their husbands say.

It’s not to say that women aren’t making headway… In Accra and other larger cities the women are starting to get more office positions and women are starting to attend college. I occasionally see women behind the wheel of a car… but from where I stand in my little rural village it is every so much a male dominated world.