{
  "id": 4357559,
  "title": "Joyce Bawah Mogtari urges Ghanaian women to move beyond representation to leadership",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/29/joyce-bawah-mogtari-urges-ghanaian-women-to-move-beyond",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-29T23:56:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "GBC Ghana",
    "slug": "gbc-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/general/joyce-bawah-mogtari-urges-ghanaian-women-to-move-beyond-representation-to-leadership/2026/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Joyce Bawah Mogtari, President John Dramani Mahama's Presidential Advisor and Special Aide, has encouraged Ghanaian and African women to transcend the pursuit of representation and assume a more proactive role in influencing societal institutions and decisions. Addressing the Eve Women’s Forum in the United States, Mrs Bawah Mogtari remarked on the significant evolution of women's position in Ghana, highlighting the growing opportunities for women to assume leadership roles across various sectors. When Ghana's Fourth Republic commenced in 1992, women were represented by only 16 in Parliament, but Mrs Bawah Mogtari emphasized the strides made since then to inspire more women to pursue leadership roles in politics, business, law, and other fields.\n\nShe stated, \"We are no longer merely surviving, we are leading. We are no longer just asking for a seat at the table, we are designing the architecture of the rooms where decisions are made.\"\n\nMrs Bawah Mogtari cited the election of Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as Ghana's first female Vice President as a landmark event. She noted that the Vice President's journey—from academia to becoming the first female Vice Chancellor of a public university, Education Minister, and finally Vice President—underscores the potential for women through scholarship, character, and leadership. \"When Vice President Opoku-Agyemang took her oath of office, she did not just break a glass ceiling, she shattered an age-old narrative,\" Mrs Bawah Mogtari affirmed.\n\nHowever, she underscored that mere representation is insufficient; women's involvement in decision-making must result in tangible structural advancement. \"Representation must lead to opportunity, opportunity must yield participation, and participation must deliver lasting, structural transformation for women and girls everywhere,\" she argued.\n\nMrs Bawah Mogtari also mentioned Ghana's National Gender Policy and the recently enacted Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, 2024, as initiatives intended to boost women's participation in decision-making. She further emphasized the critical need to focus on women's economic independence, particularly their capacity to generate, preserve, and transfer wealth across generations. \"The question is no longer simply: ‘How do we empower women?’ The question must now be: ‘How do we help women create, retain, and transfer wealth across generations?’\" she concluded.",
  "summary": "By: Benjamin Nii Nai Anyetei Presidential Advisor and Special Aide to President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has urged Ghanaian and African women to move beyond the pursuit of representation and take a more active role in shaping institutions and decisions that influence society. Speaking at the Eve Women’s Forum in the United States, […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}