Florence Dolphyne: Life History of The Ghanaian Woman Who Became First Female Professor at University of Ghana

Florence Dolphyne grew up with a goal to become an educationist someday and through hard work accompanied by various opportunities, she rose through the ranks after commencing her career at the University of Ghana, Legon making her the first woman to hold a number of positions in her field.

Just after females were given equal rights to education thanks to decades of advocacy, many have lived to become pacesetters over the years across various fields in the world.

Like many, Florence Dolphyne a young girl from Akyinakrom in the Ejisu-Juabeng District of the Ashanti Region, discovered her love for academia at a very young age and pursued that with all her might until she was finally recognized and her works, celebrated.

YEN.com.gh, therefore, seeks to highlight the life journey of Professor Florence Dolphyne, the very first female Professor and the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon.

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Florence was not born into a well-to-do family unfortunately hence in order to afford to go to school, she had to sell bread and kenkey.

Gaining admission to Wesley Girls' Senior High School and the University of Ghana

Thankfully, she successfully sailed through her basic education and gained admission to one of Ghana's top secondary school, Wesley Girls Senior High School and then to Mfantsipim School for her sixth form education where she became the first female to win a prize in school.

After secondary school, Florence moved to the University of Ghana to pursue a degree in English and graduated in 1961.

Her excellent academic prowess won her a scholarship to pursue a postgraduate degree at the University of London in the UK.

Teaching at Labone Senior High School for the first time

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Florence's dream to impact knowledge to others finally came to pass when she finished her education abroad and moved back home.

Her first job was as teacher at the Labone Senior High and from there she moved to the University of Ghana in 1965 at the department of Linguistics and Ghanaian Languages.

Some of Florence Dolphyne's achievements at the University of Ghana, Legon

Joining the department of Linguistics and Ghanaian Languages at the University of Ghana made her one of the founding members of the department and years later, she became the Head of the department.

Florence gradually became Senior Tutor and Warden of the female hall, Volta and in 1996 got appointed as the female professor at the university and in Ghana.

The hard work of the educationist was crowned when the University of Ghana appointed her as the Pro-vice Chancellor, making her the first ever female to hold that position.

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Charity Zormelo Fiawoo: Meet the First Woman to Graduate from the Gold Coast

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh earlier reported that as time went by, the notion that the female's place is in the kitchen faded out and more and more girls got the chance to receive proper formal education.

Charity Zormelo Fiawoo, an intelligent Ghanaian woman was one of such ladies who got to experience education beyond the informal type.

YEN.com.gh therefore highlighted the historical background of Charity, the first woman to graduate from Gold Coast, now Ghana and also the first woman from an English-speaking West African country to acquire a bachelor's degree.

Source: YEN.com.gh