“More education is needed on gender and gender-based violence” | Education

The Gender Coordinator of the Public Service Workers’ Union (PUWU), Ms. Joyce Maku Appiah says that it is important for workers and their leaders to understand gender issues and gender violence.

Speaking to the media at a three-day training workshop organized by PUWU for selected executives at the PUWU Hospitality and Conference Center in Kasoa in the Central Region, Madam Maku Appiah said that workers should be equipped with a better understanding of gender and skills on how to integrate the provisions of ILO Convention 190, as a mechanism to mitigate the increasing cases of violence and harassment at work and in the community.

He said that the training sought to achieve three main objectives, namely;

Deepen members’ understanding of what gender is and how they will be able to incorporate gender issues into union programs.
Raise awareness about Convention 190 of the International Labor Organization, which aims to eliminate harassment in the workplace.

Help leaders educate their members when they return to their various institutions.
Joyce Maku Appiah said the Union included men in the training because bullying doesn’t just affect women.

She said that men in the workplace are also at the forefront of matters and therefore need to be educated on these issues so that they can handle such incidents appropriately when reported to them.

Observations

Joyce Maku Appiah noted that there are a number of incidents of violence and harassment in the workplace, but because the focus is often on sexual harassment, other forms of harassment that equally need awareness raising are often ignored.

“If you look at the definition of bullying, it is about psychological, verbal and other things, but our focus has always been on the sexual, so most of the time we do not take the other aspects seriously”, said.

Ms. Appiah said the workshop has helped broaden members’ understanding of some of the things that have been taken for granted over the years.

“The workshop has broadened members’ understanding and some of the things that we generally take for granted are now being taken seriously. I also observed that knowledge on these issues is low and it is very important that we create awareness even in the world of work ”, he reiterated.

For her part, the president of the PUWU National Women’s Committee, Madame Margaret Hammond, said that there is a high prevalence of gender violence and abuse in Ghana.

She said that out of ten women in the workplace, eight have had to endure various forms of abuse that are not only restricted to physical abuse, adding that most of the time the victims of such incidents remain silent due to stigmatization and fear of losing their jobs. .

“Gender violence and abuse are really happening in Ghana and a lot of people don’t talk about it. If you talk to ten women, at least eight of them may have been through it. People do not say anything because they want to safeguard their work and another reason is fear of stigmatization from colleagues and friends, ”he said.