FIRST Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger, feels the time has come for women in the army to do more; for adequate measures to be put in place so they can reach their highest potential and not be limited by convention.“I believe that the time has long passed for women to be equipped to break that glass ceiling beyond which their professional progress is denied,” Mrs Granger said.
“I believe that the hierarchy of the Guyana Defence Force is aware of the fact that more than half of our population are women.
“I believe that they would not wish to ignore the valuable resources at their disposal as they plan and promote the development of a modern army,” she said Monday at a function at the National Cultural Centre to mark the Women’s Army Corps’ 50th Anniversary.

Noting that 50 years ago, the thought of having a women’s army corps was unheard of and met with strong resistance, Mrs Granger said that thankfully, that perception has been slowly changing, in that for some time now, women have been pursuing careers that have proven that they are capable of thinking and acting tactically, if not better, than their male counterparts in several areas of their lives.

She bolstered her argument by referring to the late 1960s and early 1970s, which saw the emergence of feminism, which led to 1975 being declared International Women’s Year.

This was sharply followed by the United Nations declaring the period 1976-1985 as the International Decade for Women, and much later, in 1979 to be precise, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), of which Guyana is a signatory.

She summed it all up by saying: “After 50 years of service to our nation, we can envision professionally-trained and equipped women participating in, and commanding, Infantry and Special Forces battalions; heading branches of the Service, and one day becoming Chief-of-Staff of our Defence Force. This, I believe, is how we can best fulfil the theme of these 50th Anniversary celebrations, ‘Celebrating our Woman: Empowering them for National Defence.’”

TREMENDOUS CONTRIBUTIONS
And, in a message read by Lieutenant Colonel Natasha Stanford, Chief of Staff, Brigadier Patrick West touched on the Women’s Army Corps’ tremendous contributions to Guyana’s development over the years.

“We should, just as we have done over the past 50 years, continue to embrace women in uniform as our equals,” Brigadier West said in his message, adding:
“There was once a time when it was unfathomable for the woman to spend time at border locations; for the woman to climb Mount Ayanganna; for the woman to fly an army aircraft; for the woman to spend time at sea aboard Military Ships; for the woman to lead tactical patrols; for the woman to jump from an Army aircraft just like her male counterparts.
“You women in uniform have achieved all this within 50 years; we must have a heart of love for the audacious missions our female counterparts perform daily, and this love ought to be expressed in us allowing them to soar like eagles.”

Besides Prime Minister Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, in his capacity as Acting President, and his wife, Mrs. Sita Nagamootoo, among other functionaries in attendance at the service were Minister of State, Joseph Harmon; Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Ms Annette Ferguson; Minister within the Ministry of Education, Ms Nicolette Henry; Minister within the Ministry of Health, Dr. Karen Cummings; and ranks of the Guyana Defence Force.