WOMEN in Guyana have benefited from different initiatives over the past year, which address their economic status, better health, education and leadership – all aimed at advancing their status in society and, by extension, in the wider global community.
Issues affecting them have been advanced from a plethora of platforms, but one ill persists; that of the violence perpetrated against them.
Sunday’s discovery of the body of 20-year-old Farida ‘Suzie’ Ramdeen, of Vreed-en-Hoop Squatting Area on the West Coast Demerara was a painful reminder of the reality endured almost as a norm by women all across the globe.
The young woman’s husband allegedly admitted committing the crime to relatives and, after his arrest, reportedly directed police to her body, which was callously tossed in a trench at Houston on the East Bank of Demerara.
From January to October last year, some 35 women had been murdered in Guyana, which is a fact that has been confirmed by the Women’s Affairs Bureau (WAB).
Women endure the violence meted out by those closest to them for many reasons – emotional attachment, children and poverty.
Women one would never suspect as being victims of abuse remain in abusive relationships because of their public image. Some tell themselves, or are told by their abusers that the abuse is their own fault. All remain because of some reason that is justified by skewed rationalization; and almost all stay in the hope and belief that their lives would get better and the abuse will someday stop.  Yes, right, when they are dead at the hands of their abuser.
Regardless the reason, the fact of the matter is that it is a complex issue.
The women who suffer do not belong to one class.  Abuse is not restricted to those nearer to the poverty line, but rather the violence cuts across the divides of class, religion, education and culture.
That said, Guyana’s women obviously need more help in real terms as there are many who are falling through the cracks, many whom the safety nets extended through the different initiatives do not reach.
Women need more than just education, they need an opportunity to build their sense of self-esteem, which would inform them as to who they are and their role in not only the lives of their families, but the wider society.
The approach needed must be multi-sectoral, it must be advanced though a partnership that involves schools, churches, the workplaces and the streets.
The media itself has a role to play in being an advocate for women’s rights, because through continuous focus, media can significantly effect changes, especially attitudinal change in the behaviour of men, who still see males and females in traditional settings of male dominance – a perception encouraged by some women who have been acculturated into expectation and acceptance of bondage situations of existence through the determinants of their religious or social communities.
But this is all the more reason why more needs to be done to empower women, rather than allowing a continuance of their self-abasement and submission to flagellation – either mental, emotional or physical.
The contributions of women are significant to the development of society, contributions that are often undervalued.
Women are nurturers for their families, they are responsible for children’s formal socialisation, they are home-makers, single parents, decision-makers, organizers of almost all of the charity work done, and leaders. They are individuals with dreams, ambitions and potential, and they must be recognised for the value they add to every society.
International Day for Women should catalyse the relevant interventions to address the necessities of women, because women indeed need more, despite the criticisms by a few that much has already been done for them.
The day when no woman has to suffer violence of any kind, the day when no woman has to endure marginalization, the day when no woman has to endure sexual harassment at her workplace, the day when women are recognised and treated as equals, will be the day when enough would have been done.
Until then Guyana, like many other developing countries, has a long way to go.
The Guyana Chronicle salutes all women – locally, regionally and globally, and wish all a happy International Women’s Day.