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About 46.2 percent of women in politics experience verbal abuse compared to their male counterparts, according to a research report by the Gender Center for Development Empowerment (GenCED), a civil society organization.
The report also indicates that another 26.3 percent suffer psychological abuse, said Mr. Henry Nii Kwao, GenCED Communications Officer in Accra, at the launch of the report.
The report on violence against women within political parties identified that verbal abuse was on the higher side because victims could not prove it in court.
The research attributed the causes of gender-based violence to the norms of African society in general, including Ghana.
At the family level, married women are discouraged from divorcing their partners, even in violent cases, adding that over the years this had seemed like an endorsement of gender-based violence and had migrated to democracy from Ghana.
Research carried out in the Ashanti and Greater Accra regions revealed that while 18.6 percent of the victims were sexually abused, nine percent were physically assaulted.
She explained that the two regions were selected because there were more activities involving women in politics.
Kwao said the research, which explored perceptions of violence against women (VAW) in politics, examined the forms of violence faced by women in politics and identified the way forward to mitigate or eliminate it.
“It touched on the composition of activities, structures and processes of the main political parties and was based on qualitative research design, used focused group discussions as the main means of data collection,” he added.
She said that a non-probabilistic method was used to determine the sample size, whereby 100 respondents participated in face-to-face interviews, targeting a specific group of women in active politics, in the target areas of interest.
The topics covered were; understanding of violence against women in political parties, practice of gender-based violence against women in political parties, causes of gender-based violence in political parties, effects of gender-based violence on women in the political space , experiences of gender violence and reaction of the victims, internal and external policies against gender violence against women in politics.
The research said that the effects of the violence not only lowered their self-esteem, but also depressed them, lowered their interest in politics, and affected their family and friends.
Of the 59 victims who had experienced it, only 13 had reported the matter to their political parties for fear of stigmatization and victimization, and it was treated at their level.
It is recommended that parties develop appropriate ways to report abuse, institute laws to punish perpetrators, establish strong internal policies, and change the political culture.
Ms. Esther Tawiah, Executive Director of GenCED, called on political parties to allow women to enter male-dominated positions as they are the majority and should be part of the decision-making process.
The launch attracted women leaders from the Popular Party of the Convention, the New Patriotic Party, the National Democratic Congress, among others.
