The Director General of Ghana Prisons Service, Isaac Kofi Egyir, has advised female prison officers to desist from making excuses based on their gender in order to make themselves relevant.
The director general gave the admonition at the inauguration of new Prisons Ladies Association (PRILAS) executives, and the unavailing of the newly formed Correctional and Reform Programme, COREP, on June 8, 2022 at the prisons headquarters, Accra.
l encourages you to sound it loud and clear to your members that making themselves relevant and gaining recognition would not come to them merely on account of being female but would be achieved by their resolve and willingness to play the game with their male colleagues by taking up some of the roles being played by the male officers. Achieving this feat would mean they would have to desist from making excuses based on their gender or their roles as working wives and mothers
Isaac Kofi Egyir, acknowledged the contribution of female prison officers in nurturing families and communities as socialising agents, wives, mothers, nutrition and healthcare providers, and engineering among others.
He further expressed appreciation to all women especially those in the Ghana Prisons Service whose efforts on daily basis help the Prisons Service to achieve its mandates of ensuring the safe custody and welfare of prisoners, as well as the undertaking reformation and reintegration of ex-convicts into the larger society on completion of their sentences.
the director general also charged the newly elected executives to admonish members to reject undeserved favours which make people think they have superior qualities and capabilities than them.
The women who made it to the higher echelons of the Service matched their male counterparts boot to boot and on many countless occasions surpassed them at promotion interviews.
I urge you to encourage your members at your meetings to pay attention to Sheryl Sandberg’s edict, that is, Women need to shift from thinking “I’m not ready to do that” to “I want to do that – and I’ll learn by doing it”. With this mentality, they can rise to the occasion.
While the Service will play its part in preparing them for the expected roles, I expect the new PRILAS leadership to play a complementing role by organising training and development seminars for your member from time to time as your funding position would permit.
Keep reminding them that the women who made it to the higher echelons of the Service matched their male counterparts boot to boot and on many countless occasions surpassed them at promotion interviews. And yet they were successful socialising agents and mothers regardless. He concluded.
