The Constitution of Ghana’s Fourth Republic and the Implications for Women’s Representation in Politics

Around Africa, political transitions (and new constitutions) in the 1990s and constitution reform processes in the 2010s provided the political opportunity structures for the adoption of measures that catapulted many countries to the top of world rankings in women’s representation in cabinet and parliament. By 2023, several African countries had gender parity cabinets and many more had well over 30 percent women in parliaments. Ghana has lagged in both rankings despite experiencing a political transition and new constitution and undertaking a subsequent constitution review process. Using a feminist institutionalist approach, this chapter revisits the deliberations and recommendations of the Constituent Assembly and the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) to better understand their implications for women’s representation in politics during Ghana’s Fourth Republic. The chapter reveals few references to women and gender in the constitution but significant engagement with both in the CRC—although no recommendations of the CRC were implemented. The chapter suggests that Ghana has twice missed the opportunity to enable women’s increased representation in parliament and cabinet and laments the lack of progress on the passage of an Affirmative Action Bill. The chapter relies on primary and secondary sources including interviews, government documents, news reports, and journal articles.