Career Advice

The Constitution of Ghana and the labour laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, ethnic origin, creed, colour, religion,   social, or economic status.

Part VI of the Labour Act ensures protection of working women and Part V protects workers with disabilities. Section 68 specifies that every worker shall receive equal pay for equal work without distinction of any kind. Section 46 offers special incentives for the employment of persons with disabilities, and section 53 places special emphasis in training and retraining to enable the worker to cope with any aspect of the job.

The Labour Act introduces the offence of sexual harassment. Section 175 defines it as  “any unwelcome, offensive or inopportune sexual advances or request made by an employer or superior officer or a co-worker to a worker, whether the worker is a man or a woman”.

Labour market information shows signs of gender discrimination. In the latest Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS IV), only 0.1 percent of women were found to be in the managerial/administrative category while 2.7 percent were in the professional/technical category. In the trade union movement as well, there not a single woman is among the 17 General Secretaries and 17 Deputy General Secretaries of the unions affiliated to the Ghana TUC.

The situation is worse in rural areas were women are mostly illiterate. Traditionally, women in Ghana are engaged in the production of food crops but not cash crops such as cocoa where returns are high. Women in the agricultural sector have, therefore, been seriously disadvantaged and have not benefited proportionally from the recent increases in cocoa prices, for instance. The result of the discrimination is the lower average earnings for women (particularly in the informal sector) and the lack of opportunity for career advancement for women in the formal sector. Widespread illiteracy (or low level of education) among women is cited as one important explanatory factor for the discrimination. But this may even be a better indication for discrimination against females, generally, at the household and community levels.

Some form of discrimination against women has also been detected in many collective bargaining agreements especially concerning medical insurance and other benefits. Until recently, in most of the collective agreements between unions and firms, wives of male employees could benefit from medical  insurance offered by the employer but husbands of female employee were not covered.