FACTORS INFLUENCING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN LEADERSHIP ROLES IN POLITICAL PARTIES.

BY
MAVIS AKO (10092577)

SUPERVISOR: PROF. NATHAN AUSTIN

 Outline of the presentation
 BACKGROUND
 PROBLEM STATEMENT
 OBJECTIVES
 HYPOTHESIS
 Scope of the study
 LITERATURE REVIEW
 METHODOLOGY
 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
 Background
 According to  Inter-Parliamentary Union (2019), women in
politics accounted for 24.5% as at October 2019; in 2013 it
was 8%.
 In Africa, it was 23.9% (UN 2019).
 In Ghana was 13% (The Nordic African Institute 2019).
 Strengthening women's participation in all spheres of life
has become a major issue in the discourse of economic
and social development in the last decade.
 Women’s political status and representation at all levels of
decision-making is fundamental for the achieving
transparent and accountable government.
 Background Con’t
 Ghana has adopted the African Charter Protocol on
Women’s Rights (2003) and the Solemn Declaration on
Gender Equality (2003) to improve women participation.
 The Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana
prohibits gender discrimination.
 The Article 7:C of the NDC and Article 2:20 of the NPP
Constitution all favour gender equality.
 Yet since 1960, Ghana has not been able to achieve
gender parity.
 Trends in parliamentary contestants and those elected
from 2008 to 2016 indicates that Ghana still has a long
way to go.
 Gender parity at the political party level seems to be an
unachievable dream.
 Problem Statement
 This is because in spite of the progressive governments
effort to advance the course of women’s development, the
scourge of gender discrimination and marginalization at
the political party level is still very high.

 Achieving equity and equality in female representation is

still an uphill task and these have arisen the curiosity of
scholars to investigate and understand the reasons why
despite the provisions of constitutional support to every
citizen to freely engage in politics women are still under
represented at all levels.
 Problem statement con’t
 The research therefore seeks to interrogate women
participation at the political party levels of Ghanaian
politics as well as analyze the factors that undermined
women’s performance of other roles aside the female
designated ones at the political party level.
 Research objectives
 To determine the effect of religious affiliation on
women’s participation in political parties’ leadership
roles.
 To determine the effect of educational status of
women on their participation in Political party
leadership roles.
 To examine the impact of financial status of women
on their participation in Political parties leadership
roles.
 To assess if social stereotype influence women’s
participation in political parties’ leadership roles.
 HYPOTHESES
  There is no significant effect of religious affiliation on women’s
participation in political parties’ leadership roles mediated by
leadership skills.

. There is no significant effect of educational status on women’s

participation in political parties’ leadership roles mediated by
leadership skills.

There is no significant effect of financial status of women on their

participation in political parties’ leadership roles mediated by
leadership skills.

. There is no influence of social stereotype on women’s participation

in political parties’
leadership roles mediated by leadership skills.
 Theoretical literature

The theory of participation by (Arnstein

1969)

The African feminism theory

The Leadership theory ( transformational

and transactional theories)
 Empirical literature review
Name of Topic Methodology Findings
author(s)

CANADA, WOMEN’S Mixed method (1) Mobilizing grassroots support

EUROPEAN PARTICIPATION for women candidates (2)
UNION, AS providing financial resources for
SWEDEN AND CANDIDATES IN women to contest electoral posts,
UNDP (2017) ELECTIONS (3) encouraging women to
participate in electoral politics
Sheri Kunovich The Role of Quantitative women’s inclusion in parties is
and Political Parties important in helping women to
Pamela Paxton in Women’s become candidates and elected
(2005) National Political officials
Representation
Qualitative factors such as male
VICTORIA WOMEN'S discrimination against females on
HAMAH PARTICIPATION the basis of age, public vilification
(2015) IN GHANAIAN and attacks on women’s
POLITICS personalities, lack of commitment
in implementing affirmative action
 Empirical literature review

Name of Author Topic Methodology Findings

Yao and You Women’s political Linear regression. Political parties’
(2018) participation and Data was taken activities had a
gender gaps of from 1950 to 1990 long term and
education in China:on positive impact on
1950–1990. women/daughter gender equality of
schooling activities. education.
Bleck and Is women’s Ordinary least Women’s
Michelitch (2018) empowerment squares (OLS) empowerment is
associated with regression positively
political knowledge   associated
and opinions? with rural women’s
Evidence from political knowledge
rural Mali and opinions.
Sossou (2011) Ghanaian women’s The Women in Ghana
Perception on their phenomenology, were relegated to
lack of political Interviews, focus the background.
decision making group discussions. They faced
 Conceptual Framework

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

Religious Affiliations
DEPENDENT VARIABLE
MEDIATING VARIABLES
Educational Women
Background Leadership Participation in
Skills Political Parties
Leadership Role
 Methodology
 Research Approach – Quantitative Research Approach to determine Women’s
Participation in Leadership Roles in Political Parties in the Tamale Metropolis using
correlation and linear regression.
 Research Design – Cross-sectional research design; analyzing concurrently, the
effect Religious Influence, Educational Qualification, Financial Status, Stereotype
and Stigmatization as well as Leadership Skills on the Political Parties involvement
and participation of women in the four constituencies in the Tamale using
questionnaires.
 Data source – Primary data through the uses of questionnaires.
 Population – All females at constituency (polling station/Branch level) form the
population of the study. This gives a total of 905 females from the four
constituencies.
 Sample Size – the study arrived at 682 as its sample size based on 95%
confidence level and 5% margin of error using

 Data Analysis tool – SPSS Version 25 ( Statistical Software for Social Sciences).
 Methodology

  NDC NPP  TOTAL

CONSTITUEN POPULA POPULA POPUL SAMPL

CY TION SAMPLE TION SAMPLE ATION E

NORTH 65 56 55 48 120 104

SOUTH 158 112 172 119 330 231

CENTRAL 136 101 153 110 289 211

SAGNARIGH 83 68 83 68 166 136

TOTAL 442 337 463 345 905 682

605 of the chosen sample responded to administered questionnaire
representing 88.71%.

 Constituencies NPP NDC Total

Tamale Central 90 98 188

Tamale South 99 106 205

Tamale North 50 43 93

Sagnarigu District 60 59 119

Total 299 306 605

 Preliminary Findings
Descriptive Statistics of the Main Variables
No. of Std.
  Respondents Minimum Maximum Mean Deviation
Religious Status 605 1.17 5.00 3.53 0.86

Educational Status 605 1.00 5.00 2.86 0.76

Financial Status 605 1.00 4.83 3.74 0.66

Stigma and
Stereotype 605 1.00 5.00 3.70 0.64

Leadership Skills 605 1.14 4.86 3.80 0.59

Performance in
Political Parties'
Activities 605 1.10 5.00 3.77 0.61
 Preliminary Findings
Correlation Matrix of the Variables
  A B C D E F
Performance in Political 1          
Parties' Activities (A)

           
Religious Status (B) 0.563** 1        
  0.000        
Educational Status (C) 0.202** 0.104* 1      
  0.000 0.011      
Financial Status (D) 0.469** 0.376** 0.180** 1    
  0.000 0.000 0.000    
Leadership Skills (E) 0.332** 0.161** 0.204** 0.395** 1  
  0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000  
Stigma and Stereotype (F) -0.487** -0.399** -0.293** -0.438** -0.480** 1
 Preliminary Findings
Summary of the Regression Model
R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

0.750 0.605 0.602 0.38526

 Preliminary Findings

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Sum of Degree of Mean F-Stat Significance
Squares freedom Square Value
Regression 126.736 4 31.684 193.038 0.000

Residual 98.48 600 0.164

Total 225.217 604

Linear Regression Output/Results
  Unstandardized Standardized t-Stat Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients Value
  B Std. Beta    
Error
(Constant) 0.948*** 0.111   8.541 0.000
Religious Status 0.229*** 0.023 0.322 9.842 0.000
Educational Status -0.001 0.023 -0.001 -0.527 0.179
Financial Status 0.282*** 0.033 0.306 8.609 0.000
Stigma and -0.261*** 0.035 -0.273 -7.359 0.000
Stereotype
Leadership Skills 0.275*** 0.034 0.266 8.031 0.000
*** Regression coefficient is significant at 1% level, ** Regression coefficient
is significant at 5% level
 Conclusion

 Religious affiliations, financial status and leadership of the women are

positively related to women participation in political parties’ leadership roles in
the four constituencies and statistically significant at1% level of significance.

 This implies that an improvement in any of the independent variables religious

affiliations, financial status and leadership could as well improve women
participation in political parties’ activities.

 Social stereotype is found to be negative related but statistically significant 1%

level of significance with women participation in political parties’ activities.

 Educational background or educational status is found to be negatively related

to women participation in political parties’ leadership roles but statistically
insignificant.
 Recommendation

 Political parties help their members especially women to raise

funds for their political ambitions.

 The constituents be educated to stop stigmatizing those who are

marginalized or have any form of disability so that they
-comfortably stand for political parties positions.

 Attention be given to the educational status of the women before

electing them to leadership positions, to a level that they can be
able to read and write.