An Associate Professor at the Department of Labour and Human Resource Studies, University of Cape Coast, Professor Akua Opokua Britwum has said African women continue to face disproportionate hardships under global financial systems.
Speaking at the opening of the 80th anniversary commemoration of the Fifth Pan-African Congress on Tuesday, November 18, she traced the historical roots of women’s economic marginalization in Africa.
“Colonial rule completely destroyed this. And when they started wage employment, it was also selective. Women could not work in certain areas,” Prof Britwum stated. She added that even when women were employed as nurses and teachers, “they could not marry, they could not have children.”
Prof. Britwum highlighted how patriarchal structures continue to reinforce capitalism, leaving women doubly exploited. “Patriarchy conspires with capitalism to ensure that women are doubly exploited. So women carry their gender burdens into their workplace, mothers, wives, daughters, nieces, you can go on grandmothers and all that, their care responsibilities.”
The conference, organized by the Accra-based Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF), also stressed the importance of reparations for Africa. Prof Britwum urged pan-Africanists to confront patriarchy at the core of the continent’s anti-imperialist struggle.
“In confronting patriarchy as pan-Africanists, progressive forces within the pan-African struggle, we want to move social reproduction to the point where it belongs, at the centre, at the base of our anti-imperialist struggle,” she said.