The Women’s Wing of the Rugby League Federation Ghana has launched a new campaign in anticipation of this year’s International Women’s Day. This campaign, themed #WeEmpower, is in solidarity with the UN’s theme for the occasion this year.
It aims to empower women by challenging stereotypes and male domination in all aspects of their lives, particularly in sports, and especially during this period when the world is facing the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With this campaign, I’m hoping to empower a lot of women, encourage them to be better and to improve their quality of life.”, said Rachel Ankomah, Women’s Rugby League Coordinator. “We need to stop accepting what society says and fight for equal rights. A woman can be and can do more than just being in the kitchen as society perceives. We have a lot of players who are also giving back to community through the work they do.
Also we have women who have taken up Leadership roles in the Federation and I believe that should be a great motivation to the ladies out there and an indication that they can achieve what they set their eyes to.”
In lieu of this, there will be a program on the 8th of March to celebrate International Women’s day. This program is themed “Choose to Challenge: Challenging Stereotyping of Women and Women Empowerment”.
Edinam Yengbe, the Assistant Women’s and Events Coordinator, has this to say; “It is rather unfortunate that up until today, some women still hold traditional perspectives of themselves and their roles in society. Up until today, we still find women talking down on the successes of other women. We find women advising their daughters to behave in a certain way to be accepted in society. They choose to leave some aspects of decision making and some leadership positions to their male counterparts because it is what society expects of them. How about teaching our daughters that it is alright for them to challenge existing stereotypes? How about encouraging them to strive to effectively and efficiently operate in male-dominated fields?”
She goes on to add that she is “excited about the UN’s theme for this year’s International Women’s Day celebration. This year, we choose to challenge. We choose to be a better version of ourselves. We choose to be empowered so we can empower other women. And we choose to begin this campaign with the women in the Rugby League Federation Ghana, while extending invitations to individuals, groups or societies who find this cause worthy to join is on this campaign. We are certainly leaving no one behind!”
In an interview on the upcoming event, this is what Nadia Lilian Enyan, Public Relations Officer and Sponsorship Manager, had to say; “The event is mainly aimed at encouraging more women who are interested in sports to join in without thinking of how they would be seen or thought of as a sportsperson. As we know a lot of women engaged in sporting activities are tagged with a certain name, either they’re seen as manly or “kankpe”. We hope to let women know they can indulge in all sporting activities freely regardless of what people think.
It’s all about believing in yourself and being confident about what you do and making impact.”
“Also, the event aims to empower women and encourage women that they could be in the corporate world and still be sports people. There are several women out there who occupy managerial positions yet still are very sporty and no one is able to criticize them or ridicule them for what they do. This instills some form of confidence in you and should help encourage everyone that you can be a boss in the office and on the Field”.
The event will be held virtually via Zoom on March 8, 2021. This is to ensure that no physical contact is made due to the Corona Virus pandemic, and also to allow for participants abroad to join in without trouble.
Source: Dickson Boadi, Contributor
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