that is if she is given the opportunity, as compared to the boy is not fair. It is very important that we look at it -- that human beings as we are, we are equal and we need to be given equal opportunities.
If the equal opportunity is given us right from the word go, as the Constitution states that there is no gender difference in all spheres of life of Ghanaians, then we would go a long way to have equality and to have our women in positions that the need be.
Mr Speaker, we look at women who have come thus far; some still alive and some who have passed away. They have done a lot, and there is the need to remember them. Just as the Hon Member who made the Statement said earlier, it is good for us to continue to remember them and to continue to ensure that their names live with us -- that they are our mentors and we uphold them.
Mr Speaker, today, we have some other more women that I would be mentioning to add to the list that our Leader had mentioned. We have Madam Charlotte Osei who is the Electoral Commissioner of Ghana; we have Madam Cecilia Johnson who was the first Minister for Local Government and Rural Development.
We have Nana Oye Lithur who was also the Hon Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection and we have Mrs Bamford-Addo who was the Speaker of Parliament and was also a Supreme Court Judge, and we have Madam Marietta Brew who was also a Minister. We have Hon Hannah Tetteh and we have my own sister, the late Hon Hawa Yakubu, just to mention a few.
Mr Speaker, why do we think that we need to go back to the drawing board? That is because we need to learn best practices and find out how these women came to be what they are. What is preventing us? If we say we are giving opportunities to the girl-child, who is the one who is taking care of the girl-child? They are the mothers in the villages.
These mothers are not mothers who need much money to undertake their businesses. Some of them sell petty items such as pepper, salt or kolanuts -- you can name them. One woman just goes to buy just a bowl of herrings which we call nsesawa and she sells it.
With that, she is able to take care of her children. What support are we giving to the village woman? The highest amount she may need is GH¢200.00. These are the women who really need that support and need to be given that opportunity.
Mr Speaker, how are we going to support the rural women? Whenever we talk about support to women -- a lot have been mentioned of the 10 million; we talk of entrepreneurs and when we mention the entrepreneurs, I can assure you that with that big English word, most of our women sit back and do not understand. They do not even know that they have an opportunity.
We need to break that word down, to come out and make sure that the women understand so that at least those women who have set up their little businesses that they have apprentices working with them such as hairdressers, seamstresses and cloth weavers, among others, are given the opportunity so that they can support those who come there to learn the trade but may not be able to even buy sewing machines when coming to learn --it is very important.
Mr Speaker, we look at the fact that women who are into hairdressing have to pay electricity bills. At the end of the day, this rural lady is sitting there and maybe has not gotten GH¢100.00 for a whole month.
These are the rural women, yet they have to pay electricity bill -- what are we doing to make sure that the bill is brought down for her to enable her continue to work so that others can also be trained under her?
Mr Speaker, I would suggest to all political parties and to our President, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is championing the cause of women to take the leadership role of making sure that the 30 per cent appointment to District Assemblies should be given to women. This would go a long way to help us. It is of no essence if we continue to talk about 30 or 40 per cent every day and yet we are not achieving our aim.
Mr Speaker, in concluding, I would want to say that in Ghana, we would want to press for progress. In the State of the Nation Address, the President mentioned the issue of bringing the Affirmative Action Bill to Parliament.
I am the Ranking Member for the Committee on Gender, Children and Social
Protection and I have spoken with the Hon Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection and she is in the process of reintroducing the Affirmative Action Bill.
Mr Speaker, but the question is; what stakeholder meetings have we held?
Have we spoken to our men and are they ready to support it? Has consultation been properly done? Ever since the beginning when we started bringing this Bill to this House, I have heard, including some women here, that we are not ready to pass that Bill because we think that others would be getting it cheap.
I believe that there would be so many clauses that would be attached to the Affirmative Action Bill such that it is not going to be free for anybody at all.
This is because to elect a woman to come to this august House or to take up a leadership position, that woman is not an empty-box, excuse my language. She is going to be a woman of competence, a woman of substance, confidence and a woman who can undertake leadership role as expected.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much, and I just would want to say that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) needs to be completely eradicated.
Mr Speaker, teenage pregnancy is very high, especially, in my district. We need to find out the cause of it. The dropout rate in schools is very high, especially with the girl-child. Let us support the girl- child to grow up into the woman that she needs to be, and when she becomes a leader or takes up a leadership role, she would do exactly as it is expected of everybody, and that the woman would not be seen to be one who only takes
