The progress-limiting systems targeted at women need to change

Ernest Boateng, CEO, Global Media Alliance

 IWD 2022

“Wherever she (woman) goes, a woman of value always adds value”. This is a quote from Gift Gugu Mona, a poet who hails from Mpumalanga, South Africa. Indeed, there is no denying of the fact that women have played and continue to play invaluable roles in the advancement of modern society. 

However, these contributions – and here I speak of the value women have added to advancing civilization, have been squeezed out of rocks – with little to no support from society. This ultimately results from the societal stereotypes and prejudices that have been created to limit and to a larger extent dwarf the value of women. Perhaps, a statistics to paint a picture would do. In terms of power decision-making, women held only 28% of managerial positions globally as of the year 2019 – almost the same proportion as of 1995.

The irony is, society knows that the somewhat progress-limiting system created and targeted at women needs to change. A reference could be made to the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, over twenty-five years, which among other things, seeks to ensure progress towards equal power and equal rights for women. However, there are clear indications that no country has so far been able to achieve such feat.

Much needs to be done if we are to actualize the ideals of equality for women and we as brand have dedicated to ensuring this within our respective spaces. 

At Global Media Alliance we give everyone a seat at the table for projects. When we are implementing a new project, we make sure we bring together a diverse team with a wide variety of background and experience to tackle it.

In today’s society, gender bias is construed to mean preferential treatment men receive and it describes the prejudice against women solely. We, as a brand, are sensitive and are critical at using a merit-based approach to assign responsibilities and tasks. Ones gender is not a factor we would usually consider in giving responsibilities. We look at ones skillset and capabilities. 

Our level of awareness of how existing gender biases could hinder organizational growth is high and we thus do not countenance on any corporate policy that has the potential of stoking the fire of inequality – making female workers feel they are being marginalized. 

Results of biases have contributed to the creation of the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is a metaphor for the evident but intangible hierarchical impediments that prevents women from achieving elevated professional success. Due to this, women experience a barrier that prevents them from reaching upper-level roles in leadership and the C-suite. We, as a brand, have instituted measures to prevent such from filtering into work spaces and corporate structures. 

As a society let’s break these biases and push our women to the top!

To all the women in GMA, across Ghana and around the globe, we see your contributions. 

Collectively let’s #BreakTheBias!