Women in Traditional Leadership: the Status and Roles of Female Chiefs and Queenmothers in the Asebu Traditional Area

Abstract

This research seeks to comparatively investigate the status and roles of female chiefs and queen mothers in the Asebu Traditional Area. To this end, the succession norms, roles, achievements, and challenges of female chiefs and queen mothers are analysed from the perspective of the political life of women in governance. The role of women in traditional leadership has changed from the pre-colonial period through the colonial period and to the period after independence. Usually, female chiefs carry the accolade of queen mother, and they are considered so. The explanation is that they complement the role of chiefs. However, the context for which the term female chief is used here and throughout this thesis is whereby a female occupies a male stool and perform the appropriate roles associated with the stool. These women do not hold chieftaincy positions as queen mothers but as/are chiefs in their own right. Thus, they play roles that are reserved for male chiefs. In the collection of data, this research will adopt a qualitative method. Interviews and participant observations will be used to collect primary data. Based on the study results, the paper concludes that, although both the female chief and the queen mother are women, their varying roles assigned to the positions they occupy affect their succession norms, roles, achievements and challenges. As a result, the female chief is expected to perform masculine duties while the queen mother is expected to perform feminine duties. Finally, it maintains that the selection of a female as chief is circumstantial. The traditional rulers should make the necessary efforts to institutionalise the female chief’s position in Ghana since their current position is circumstantial.