The changing roles of women in Ghana’s economy are becoming increasingly evident as more women transition from informal trade into professional and technology-driven careers.
For Ama Mensah, a 32-year-old information technology specialist, her career in the digital sector reflects a broader shift in opportunities available to women across generations.
Ms Mensah explained that while her current work involves managing software systems for a private company, the values that shaped her ambitions were rooted in the experiences of the women who came before her.
She said her grandmother, who had no formal education, built a livelihood in the late 1970s trading smoked fish across West African borders. According to Ms Mensah, the trade involved purchasing fish from coastal communities, smoking them using traditional methods and transporting them to markets in neighbouring countries such as Togo and Côte d’Ivoire.
Despite the demanding nature of the work and the financial risks involved, the business sustained the family and laid the foundation for the next generation to pursue formal education.
“My grandmother always said education was the one opportunity she wished she had,” Ms Mensah said, adding that the trading income helped support her mother’s education.
Her mother later trained as a teacher and spent more than two decades in the classroom, choosing a career that offered stability and social recognition during a period when the country’s education sector was expanding.
For Ms Mensah, the path shifted again with the rise of digital technology. After developing an interest in computers during secondary school, she pursued a degree in information technology at university and now works in the growing tech industry.
“The world is changing quickly,” she said. “My grandmother traded fish across borders, my mother taught in the classroom, and today I work with computers and digital systems that connect people globally.”
She believes the increasing access to education in recent decades has enabled more Ghanaian women to move from physically demanding informal economic activities into professional and technical fields.
Ms Mensah said choosing a career in technology has been one of the most rewarding decisions she has made, noting that the sector offers strong growth opportunities and competitive pay.
She encouraged young women to consider pursuing studies in science and technology-related fields, saying such careers can open doors to new opportunities in an increasingly digital economy.
