Not just about style—a question of voice, evidence, and equality.
Sharing reflections from my work across countries and sectors on why gender lenses matter—even in policies as everyday as school hair rules.
When hair becomes policy—and young women are left out of the conversation.
A familiar debate often surfaces: should girls in Senior High School in Ghana wear their hair short or long?
The arguments are always, well, interesting.
On one side, short hair is framed as a path to discipline and upright citizenship—as though cutting off 12–14 years of personal identity is the secret to academic and moral success. On the other, long hair is defended as a way to preserve self-love and avoid future reliance on wigs—as though hairstyle alone determines self-esteem.
Hair is not just hair. It’s a symbol of identity, autonomy, and voice—and should never be used to measure a person’s (man or woman) discipline, worth, or Africanness.
What’s often missing? Evidence. And voice.
No data is presented to support either claim. And more importantly, young women themselves are rarely invited into the conversation.
We debate their hair, their discipline, their Africanness, their future. But we don’t spend time to ask them what they think. If we cannot allow young women to speak and decide about their hair, how will we allow them to speak and decide about their careers, their businesses, their leadership?
As someone who has worked across countries and sectors to advance Women’s Economic Empowerment, I have seen how exclusion from dialogue leads to exclusion from opportunity. I have also seen how the absence of data—or the refusal to use it—keeps gender-responsive policies stuck in opinion and outdated tradition. Because when women are not part of the conversation, and when evidence is not part of the process, the systems that shape their lives are often misaligned with their realities.
It’s a missed opportunity to apply a gender lens to an existing policy.
To achieve gender equality, we must apply a gender lens to both existing and new policies—not just in education, but across all sectors. We must ask:
Who is at the table? Whose voice is heard? What evidence informs our decisions?
Let her speak. Let the data speak for her. Let policy reflect her reality.
Call to Action:
Next time you engage in policy dialogue—whether in education, business, or governance—pause and ask: Whose voice is missing? What evidence are we ignoring? Then commit to making space for both.