Thank you so much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement.
Mr Speaker, I know you are a sincere champion of matters relating to women, and you have amply demonstrated that since we came to this House with you in the Chair as Speaker.
Mr Speaker, indeed, I also hold dear the issues of women in the sense that I cannot recount the number of times my late father was in the kitchen to prepare meals for me. But I can recount the number of times my mother and subsequently, my stepmother fed me and ensured that my welfare was well taken care of.
That, indeed, is a demonstration of what the Late Dr Kwegyir Aggrey said that, “when you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation”.
Mr Speaker, that is why I agree with the school of thought that believes that when women are in positions of authority and responsibility, our society would thrive better.
It has been pointed out that in Rwanda, some concrete steps were taken to ensure that women could take their rightful places in that society, and indeed, today we can talk of Rwanda being a beacon in Africa. That is a testament to the fact that women have been given their rightful roles.
Mr Speaker, South Korea is a country that is touted as having developed very quickly.
In South Korea, women have been given extraordinary opportunities that you cannot even imagine, to the extent that even if a man is married to a woman, his pay cheque at the end of the month is not paid into his account, but it is paid into his wife's account for disbursement. In South Korea, if a married man is caught engaging in an illicit affair with another woman, it is a crime.
Mr Speaker, at your behest, I was privileged to be in South Korea recently. The Committee Members and I who went were alarmed when we were told these things, but these are some of the things that have contributed to the effective forward march of that country.
I ask myself why we have housewives, and sometimes the kind of jobs they do at home far outweighs what we do when we go to our secular offices.
But are they really paid? It is high time we began to think of ways and means to structure it such that husbands who work while their wives stay home to take care of the home and the families are also put on payroll, so that for instance, if a husband earns GH¢ 3000, out of that amount, the wife is paid GH¢ 1000. I am sure when that is done, we would be working towards achieving a fair society.
Mr Speaker, in this country, we always refer to women as part of the minority group, but is that really the case? When we look at the population of this country, we have more women than men, so why would we say they are in the minority?
That is why I agree with Hon Colleagues who have propounded that we need to follow the examples of some other countries that have proportional representation in Parliament and other high ranking institutions in their countries, such that in Parliament we do not just talk about 30 per cent representation for women, which we never achieve across the political parties.
Mr Speaker, it should be 50-50, after all, even the Bible says your better half. When you go to marriage ceremonies and they talk about better half, it is 50-50.
So it must be reflective in all our institutions and endeavours as a society and as a people. I believe strongly that this is the only way our society would resonate with the success that we desire.
The reason we are not achieving the needed success as a nation is that those of us who were brought up by women, who carried us in their wombs for nine months, delivered, raised and taken care of us, now we tend to look down on them and think that we are the repository of wisdom, which we are not.
Mr Speaker, you alluded to the fact that in Ghana now, when you go to the universities, in all the high ranking courses, the women are emerging with First Classes, well behaved students' awards, et cetera. That, in itself, is an indication that when it comes to discipline, women are more disciplined and cautious than men.
Mr Speaker, seriously speaking, if we look at it across the world, women who find themselves in positions of authority tend not to be as corrupt as their male counterparts. I am sure that when we have more women in this Chamber, we would do things more rightly.
Mr Speaker, I do not see why some men should be unwilling to relinquish their seats to women. I, Richard Mawuli Kwaku Quashigah, have always been willing to relinquish my seat to a woman -- [Uproar] - the only unfortunate scenario is that in all the contexts that I have engaged in, the women never showed up, but if they had showed up, I would have relinquished my seat to them.
Mr Speaker, I dare my Hon male Colleagues in this House to be willing to give way to our women counterparts when they pop up on the political scene in the December 2020 elections. They should make way for them and allow them to contest, so that we would realise the 30 per cent we have been touting.
Mr Speaker, it has all become lip service. We need to resource our women and give them the necessary capacity that is required, and I believe strongly that we would be making great progress.
Mr Speaker, I thank you so much for the opportunity.
