Breaking Gender Stereotypes and Cultural Taboos: Ghanaian Women Art Educators Confront Gender Bias in Art Education

Abstract

Ghanaian women art educators grapple with systemic sexism and gender stereotypes prescribed to Ghanaian women and girls that result in inequality in the field of art education. Cultural taboos toward womanhood hinder many Ghanaian women and girls progress in enrolling in particular art courses and in pursuing art as a career. This narrative inquiry critically examines six Ghanaian women art educators’ experiences teaching art and the expectation for female students to become wives and mothers. Through a Ghanaian feminist framework, I explore how women art educators attempt to provide the opportunity for girls to enter the field of art and challenge traditional African norms of womanhood. This investigation demonstrates how Ghanaian women art educators’ service, as activists, seek ways to empowerment female students even within a Eurocentric male dominated education ideology.