The Silent Sabotage: How Ghana’s Local Government Service Reproduces Gender Inequality

Women’s underrepresentation in leadership within public sector institutions remains a persistent governance and equity challenge, particularly in decentralised systems. Grounded in empowerment theory, this study uses a qualitative interpretive design to examine how gendered power relations shape women’s leadership progression within Ghana’s Local Government Service. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 83 women administrators across 13 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Greater Accra Region and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal three interrelated categories of barriers: socio-cultural, institutional, and individual. These barriers interact to reproduce women’s underrepresentation in local administrative leadership.