Wa, Dec. 18, GNA – A baseline survey conducted by the Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD-Ghana) has shown that more girls than boys engage in unpaid domestic care work, presenting an undue burden on the girls and their studies.
The survey was under the She Leads project being implemented by CARD-Ghana, in partnership with Plan International Ghana, to provide evidence on the unpaid care work burden on Girls and Young Women (GYW) compared to the boys.
Presenting the survey findings at a stakeholders’ engagement in Wa, Madam Leenat Abdul Rahaman, the Executive Director of CARD-Ghana, noted that the survey was to enable the stakeholders to appreciate the gender inequality gaps in the use of time between boys and girls.
She explained that it was also to advance the justification for division of labour in household and domestic unpaid work between boys and girls.
Traditional and religious leaders and political party influencers at the project communities as well as youth leaders and young women network members participated in the engagement workshop.
A total of randomly selected 250 respondents, comprising 125 males and 125 females, in the She Leads Project communities, participated in the survey.
The communities were Kperisi, Chansah, Chegli, Sagu and Nyagli, all in the Wa Municipality.
The survey focused on areas such as the time spent by boys and girls fetching fuel wood for domestic use, learning, carrying out household chores and for leisure, among others.
“There is an unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work time, with women generally bearing disproportionately higher responsibility for unpaid work and spending proportionately less time on paid work…,” the survey revealed.
It indicated that cooking and childcare, for instance, consumed much of a girl’s productive hours as they spent about 365 minutes a day cooking and caring for children while their male counterparts spent only 95 minutes doing the same activities.
The survey said girls had the least opportunity to study after school while few boys indicated they studied at home after school.
Madam Abdul Rahaman, therefore, urged boys to support the girls in carrying out domestic unpaid work such as fetching fuel wood, caring for children and cooking, among others, to afford the girls the opportunity to also engage in other activities for their personal development.
The participants endorsed a community pledge prepared by the communities through the influence of CARD-Ghana, with the collective commitment of the traditional, religious and political influencers towards advancing the success of the She Leads project.
They also made individual commitments to supporting girls’ leadership and their meaningful engagement in decision making at the community level.
GNA