Rosemond Asiama, who was the first Ghanaian woman to be enlisted into the Ghana Police Service, then the Gold Coast Police Force, has died aged 91.
It would be recalled that Police Woman One (PW/1) Rosemond Asiama Nkansah, together with 11 other women, were enlisted into the Gold Coast Police Force on September 1, 1952 at the age of 22.
Records had it that before then, the police force had been male dominated since its establishment in1894.
Reports revealed that during the time of the first 12 women in the service, they were forbidden to marry or get pregnant and were compelled to resign if they wanted to go contrary to that directive, and that led to the resignation of some women who joined the service after the first 12.
After serving for five years and nine months, PW/1 Asiama decided to marry so she resigned, “but thinking that women were not being fairly treated as their male counterparts who were allowed to marry and bear children, she decided to do something about it before leaving”.
But before her resignation on May 16, 1958, PW/1 Asiama petitioned the administration and the clause was removed; thus allowing women in the service to marry and bear children and causing those who had resigned to start their families to be reinstated.
It should be noted that before her enlistment, PW/1 Asiama was a holder of Senior Cambridge and Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ and taught briefly before joining the police force; so after resignation, as a professional teacher she went back to the teaching profession and taught at St John’s Grammar School from 1961 to 1964.
Reports said thereafter, Asiama joined the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in 1965 and was in charge of school broadcasting programmes for a year.
It was also reported that she retired and became a full-time housewife trading in building materials until she retired from active service in 1999 and devoted her time to writing books, translating words in her book Octagon into both foreign and local languages.
She became known for fighting for the rights of her fellow policewomen whilst in service, reports say.
