women in ghana- part 1

So this is a blog that I have been meaning to write for some time. I am quite interested in gender roles, as many of you know since I cannot stop talking about them. So obviously, I would want to comment on the roles of men and women in Ghana. Here goes...
I have been painting my rooms and everyone in my village is shocked. I cannot tell you the number of looks of disbelief I have received after telling people that I am painting my own rooms. Apparently, painting here is strictly a job for men. One of my friends wanted to help me paint, but claimed that she did not know how. I told her that it is a mere movement of your hand. So she learned to paint and actually really enjoyed it. Also, drawing seems to be only for boys. When one of my fellow volunteers was doing a presentation to children on health and how to stay safe and gave the children the assignment of drawing some unhealthy activities vs. healthy, the girls just stood to the back of the room while the boys drew. It is sad t0 see how something as important to a child's growth and imagination, such as drawing and being creative, becomes segregated and it is the girls who miss out. Many young girls I have talked to want to play football, but they do not know how or it is not acceptable for them to play. It is also the boys who site around in the afternoons playing board games while the girls watch, or more often than not, are caring for their younger siblings, making food, doing the wash, etc. It seems that the young men have more free time than the girls so they have the time to develop their creativity, play games that develop their minds, and just be kids.
How my colleague saw that the girls deferred to the boys in just the simple act of drawing is a microcosm for the roles of men and women here. During church meetings in my village, when there is a matter to be discussed in front of the whole church, it is only the men who speak. The congregation is segregated by sex, so neither sex will be distracted (!). Thus, it is only the male side of the church that actually gives their input as to what should be done about the issue. This is also the pattern in community meetings and even in the Peace Corps with our Ghanaian trainers. If men are present, women will not speak aloud. It was quite frustrating to see this pattern within the Peace Corps, which has the objective to empower women especially. When our trainers would be presenting about certain topics, such as the history and politics of Ghana, it would be only our male trainers who would present, though the women were just as capable as presenting, if not more so. Also, our trainers lived in the communities with us during training and it was a given that if there was a female trainer in the community, she would automatically take on the role of cooking for the male trainer though both were working the exact same hours.
Both the men and women here work extremely hard. The major source of income is from farming yams, cassava, plantains, maize, etc. Both men and women go to farm, but sometimes the women stays home to cook, clean, or grind/roast some of the products from the farm. Washing clothes by hand and cooking over a coal pot is hard work. I know that my host father thought that my host mother did not do anything all day, just because she stayed at home while I was living there. This was very frustrating to hear because I witnessed how hard she worked everyday and also because of the historical perception (that is perhaps fading out a bit in the U.S. due to both mother and father taking a greater role in child-rearing) that taking care of children and home is not "work."
Inevitably, this ties into sex. One of my friends has come to me about questions about her menstrual cycle that she should have known about three years ago, though she is 19. Another one of my friends has tried to ask his teachers and his father honest questions about sex, but no one will answer his questions. Youth seem hard pressed for information about natural functions. It seems that women cannot express their desires openly. They must wear a string of about 5 strings of beads around their waist, which purpose is to signal to the woman's partner that she would like sex without actually expressing herself verbally.
Hope you found this interesting! I am learning so much....

Lindsey