Dela Goldheart is First Ghanaian woman to become a Gates Cambridge Scholar PhD candidate

16th April 2020

Ghanaian Gender activist and feminist, Amelia Amemate popular known in Ghana as DELA Goldheart has been admitted to the 2020 Batch of Gates Cambridge Scholars

She was one of the successful candidates who was announced on April 15, 2020, among some Seventy-seven women and men from thirty countries across the globe. 8% of whom are PhD candidates and, among them 2 Ghanaians.

Starting in October, She will be pursuing a PhD in Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge. as the first Ghanaian woman to become a Gates Cambridge Scholar as a PhD candidate.

The Gates Cambridge scholarship boasts of a community of about 1700 exceptional brains from more than 100 countries in the world. Throughout the history of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, there is only one Ghanaian woman who had the opportunity to join the program.

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Biography

Confronting issues that affect women and girls have always been a major part of my development process.

Growing up in a small coastal town in Ghana, West Africa, I noticed that girls and boys are treated unequally, and women and men are held to different expectations.

So, I chose to focus on gender issues at each stage of my education. At the University of Ghana, where I earned my bachelor’s degree, my interests centred on the low participation of women in Ghanaian politics.

During my master’s, I researched the issue of African women’s hair-culture and politics. My work introduced a third stance to the hair debate by arguing that African women do not alter their hair because they want to be white or just as a matter of style.

Rather, there are norms in African culture that privilege straight hair over coily hair. At the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Gender Studies, I will be looking at how Ewe and Akan cultural norms contribute to gender inequality and technology’s impact on gender relations in Ghana.

My goal is to produce research work that redefines gender relations, as well as strengthen gender-equality activism in Ghana and beyond. Joining the Gates Cambridge Scholars’ community is a dream come true.