Guinness Ghana Breweries has extended its Progressive Portrayal initiative to the University for Development Studies (UDS) Tamale campus over the weekend. This form part of the series of conversations expected to be held in five key Universities across Ghana with notable women in society.
The initiative is to drive conversations around inclusion and diversity and to push the narrative of a more representative, progressive and equal portrayal of women in advertising and media.
The session featured influential media personality Caroline Sampson, Ama Pratt, CEO, MAP Concepts Ghana, Organisers of the Obaasima Summit, Abena Chrappah, Digital and Media Manager, Guinness Ghana, and Prof. Paul Armah Aryee, Vice Dean of Students, UDS, Tamale.
Media and Digital Manageress at Guinness Ghana PLC, Abena Chrappah explained the Progressive Portrayal initiative forms part of the company’s Spirit of Progress agenda by 2030 to empower women to bring diversity and inclusion in all spheres of the job market.
She observed the stereotype has always been about the beauty of women and not their capabilities. Therefore, she emphasized the ultimate objective of the campaign is to drive change for equal portrayal of women in the media.
“Our goal is for Ghanaians (women and men) to begin to realize that we should look at women for their capabilities and not their beauty or the body that they have, and this is actually very prevalent in the media when sometimes a host is chosen because of how beautiful she is, instead of, is she really fit to host the show?
So that’s why we’re here; we always wanted to come to the universities because we need to start from somewhere so that by the time they’re done with school, their mindset is different, the way they approach things is different and we can equally be able to hire these women” Miss Abena posited.
She said the orientation of women must change and they begin to think of themselves as people capable to do any job, stressing that, “Once they begin to work in that mindset then in few years’ time we would have the pool of talents that we want to be able to improve as a country.”
Meanwhile, the session provided speakers who have been identified as key influential personalities and change makers among the student demographic of Ghana.
They brought their unique viewpoints to bear as they touched on topics ranging from, personal and professional experiences, perspectives on the gains made, challenges, overcoming negative women representation, weak representation of women as well as recommendation to shift the way women are portrayed.
