Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung@ 40 in Ghana The Children's Act protects children from early marriage and the Matrimonial Causes Act supports women seeking divorce under both customary and ordinance marriages. The Trafficking Law was passed in 2006, while a landmark Domestic Violence Law was passed in 2007 after active struggle by the Domestic Violence Coalition(DV Coalition). In spite of these laws, Ghanaian women have to still contend with biases and discriminatory practices in employment, marriage, divorce and in access to resources such as land, labour capital, and technology. 3.0 Opportunities For Women to Participate in Public Life in Ghana. Historically Ghanaian women have shown a keen interest in traditional structures of decision-making and have played very important roles in their households, in the economy and in political leadership. However colonial rule and the introduction of Christianity and Islam transformed the social relationships between women and men changing the character of women's recognised roles and responsibilities from a status of valuation and affirmation, to one of domination, low status and of little value. In spite of all the above, women actively participated in the struggle for independence. The late President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of the then Convention Peoples' Party( CPP) recognised the important contributions of women and in 1960, passed the Representation of People's Act(Women members) in 1960 to allow for the election of 10 women into Parliament. In 1965, nine(9) more women were elected into parliament increasing the female representation to 19. This Affirmation Action initiative was the first of its kind in Africa and if the trend had continued perhaps women's ability to influence national policies may have taken a different turn. In the Second Republic for example, only one woman was elected as against 139 men. This number increased to two(2) after a bye election. The third republic also found only five(5) women elected into a 140 member parliament. 27