ABSTRACT
Ghanaian women play a vital role in their country's economy, particularly in its agricultural sector. The handicaps and constraints they face in their livelihoods are similar to those faced by many of Africa's rural women. Women constitute 51% of Ghana's total population and 51% of the country's workforce. Ghanaian women are a major force in agriculture and farming is their main occupation in the rural areas. Women are more respected among their peers when they are married, and nearly all women are married for some part of their adult life. Credit is most often cited by women as their biggest constraint. In theory, both urban and rural women can have access to credit through the Agricultural Development Bank, the Ghana Commercial Bank or the rural banks. At the local level rural women's participation in grassroots organizations has been limited. They are either members of formal cooperatives or they constitute their own groups.
