Gladys Asmah

Hon. Gladys Asmah (born October 16, 1939 in Cape Coast , Central Region, Ghana, † June 24, 2014 in Accra ) was a Ghanaian politician. Since January 2005 she has been acting Minister for Fisheries under President John Agyekum Kufuor . From 2001 to January 2005 she was the first incumbent in the newly established Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. Gladys Asmah was a member of the Danquah-Busia family, which is politically known in Ghana. She has been politically active in Ghana since 1979.

Education and Early Years

Asmah first attended Wesley Girl High School and later the Ghana National College in Cape Coast. Upon graduation, Asmah worked briefly at the Ghana Railway Corporation and later became Head of Quality Control and Laboratory at Pioneer Tobacco Company PTC.

In 1963 Asmah left Ghana for the UK. Here she attended both the Hendson University of Technology (Hendon College of Technology) and the University of Economics in Leeds (College of Economics). Asmah graduated from House Economics in 1966 as a member of the Institute Management Association of London.

Immediately after graduating, she worked for the British Council as the Assistant Management Association in London. Already in London she discovered her first interest in fashion and got to know not only the craft but also the organizational structures of the fashion industry.

Asmah returned to Ghana and started a company that became a Limited Liability Company in 1975. In Takoradi , Asmah worked at the Takoradi Neighborhood Center, where she trains girls and young women from the area.

Political career

Asmah was a member of the Committee of Minority Parties in 1981 . This committee was supposed to bring the smaller parties together to form a unit that could successfully run against the ruling party PNP in the upcoming elections in 1983. She was the only woman on the committee. However, due to the military coup by Jerry Rawlings in December 1981, the party was no longer founded.

After Ghana returned to a democratic form of government in 1992, Asmah ran for a seat in parliament in the Takoradi constituency. It was not until 1996 that she won the constituency and moved into Ghana's parliament as a representative for the people of Takoradi. After that, Gladys Asmah remained a member of parliament for the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Her third term did not end until the election year 2008.

As early as 1996, Asmah became the first woman as a deputy opposition leader (deputy minority leader) in parliament. She was confirmed in office after the December 2000 elections, and in 2001 Asmah became Minister of the newly established Cabinet Ministry for Women and Children. In January 2005 she became Minister of Fisheries, and Hajia Alima Mahama was appointed as Asmah's successor in the Ministry of Women . For the first time under Gladys Asmah, the fisheries ministry achieved the status of cabinet ministry. The number of ministries represented in the cabinet in Ghana is constitutionally limited to 19.

family

Gladys Asmah was the widow of John Asmah, who died on February 9, 2003 at the age of 68. They had two children together.

engagement

Asmah was Chairman of the Company Board of Takoradi Women Training Ahantaman Rural Bank, Deputy Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries and chairman of the regional committee Women in Development ( Women in Development ).

She was also a board member of Fijai Secondary School and a member of the Western Regional Consultative Council and a member of the local women's affairs group in her party, the New Patriotic Party .

With the aim of reducing the poverty of women in Ghana in particular, she became Minister for Women and Children and founded the Women Development Fund (WDF).

bibliography

• Population Policy in Africa - Demands and Reality. In: Kairo + 5. Opportunities and obstacles to a successful population policy. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (Ed.) 1999.

See also

• List of Ghanaian politicians
• Government of Kufuor

Web links

• Official government site
• HiGhana

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gladys Asmah is dead graphic.com.gh, accessed December 19, 2018