International Women’s Month at GCIC came to a close with a final, two day, female entrepreneurship masterclass for cohort 7 female-led enterprises, on Self-leadership and Personal Initiative.

The sessions were held as part of the Women Entrepreneurship Transformation Programme (WETP), which has been designed to respond to the specific needs of women in business and to help amplify female voices.

The first day of the masterclass was led by the Executive Director of the Centre, Ruka Sanusi and revolved around the theme of “Self-Leadership.” As part of the session, Ruka screened four videos highlighting the varying, impactful stories of the trailblazing and inspirational Terasa Njoroge, Robin Hauser, Leila Hoteit and a selection of pioneering Ghanaian women who influenced Ghana’s history of activism and female empowerment. Amongst these pioneering Ghanaian gender equity icons were women such as Justice Annie Jiagge, the first woman to become a Judge in Ghana and in the Commonwealth, Professor Florence Dolphyne, the first female professor and first female pro-vice chancellor of the University of Ghana and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the first woman to run for President in Ghana.

Ruka used the videos and the trajectories of these remarkable women to draw out themes of leadership, and to highlight the parallels between the leadership qualities of the women in the videos and the businesswomen participating in the masterclass.

She ended the session by charging the entrepreneurs to push boundaries and explore the leadership qualities within them, saying, “It is important for women to take up positions of leadership. We must be intentional about leadership and acknowledge that there is room for us.”

The second session of the masterclass was facilitated by Dr Amanobea Boateng, Gender Consultant for GCIC and Founder and CEO of Women’s DNA Foundation, who spoke around the topic of leadership and personal initiative. Dr. Boateng highlighted the need for women to recognize the leadership qualities within them and to hone those skills.

She differentiated between the fixed mindset of business leaders which caused many leaders to be afraid of change and uncertainty, and the growth mindset of an innovative entrepreneur.  She encouraged participants to lean towards a growth mindset in their business dealings and stated that “To lead others successfully, you need to be able to lead yourself. You must invest 40% of your time in leading yourself”.

Dr Amanobea Boateng completed the masterclass with a video on resilience and leadership and implored the businesswomen in attendance to be agile and adaptable in the leadership of their enterprises.