– but may need to begin the fight for their boys now

WOMEN across the globe are participating in the workforce more than ever before. They are gaining ground in many facets of the labour force, at all levels – from top to bottom.

Women are also currently (or have been in the past) leaders of many other countries, including Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark; Yingluck Shinawatra Prime Minister of Thailand; Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of Argentina; as well as Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil.

Other Prime Ministers include Julia Gillard of Australia, Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago; Johanna Sigurdardottir of Iceland and Sheik Hasina Wajed of Bangladesh. France and Canada also had female Prime Ministers, though for brief periods of time. The ‘Iron Lady’, Margaret Thatcher cannot be left out here.

There are also other prominent ladies such as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia; Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica; Tarja Halonen, President of Finland and Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania.

In the Middle East, only Israel and Turkey have had female leaders. Golda Meir led Israel for five years, while Turkey’s Tansu Ciller occupied the prime minister’s office for three.

Globally, women have been placed in many other positions of authority in every sector of society – ranging from the education, health, banking and finance, the judiciary, engineering, aeronautics, and many more.

In Guyana, women are very nearly in control of the education system, especially at the Kindergarten and Primary levels, with marginal changes at the Secondary level– especially in relation to the needs that present themselves at this level. At the post-secondary / tertiary levels, there is an obvious and welcome change, where larger numbers of female teachers are present in the classroom to instruct.

One may only need to use the method of a rapid assessment in order to properly garner and evaluate the outcomes of most of the national tests, such as CSEC and other exams; then follow the lead of many of the students or past students to come to some safe conclusions on where our girls, as well as boys are heading in their preparation for life.

But looking at these results, quite obviously, there is need for quick interventions because even as women continue to climb the ladder in many ways, far too many boys need to be rescued.

Studies and Reports
The IFM Report stated that while, “Women remain an underutilised labour resource in Latin America and the Caribbean…over the past two decades, they have been increasingly active at work, narrowing the gap with men and their counterparts in advanced economies at an impressive rate.”

The report offered that in a region where there is a need to find new sources of growth, encouraging more women to participate in the labour market would help boost income levels and employment across countries.

“Caribbean countries have historically had high female participation rates, and since 2005 are higher than the United States. In the rest of the region, Central America and the five largest South American economies were almost on par in the early 1990s, at below 40 percent, but since then countries in South America have made significant gains, while Central America has been catching up at a more modest rate,” the Report said.

According to a 2014 World Bank Report, ‘Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity’, it stated that notwithstanding the shocking [many] facts, “…women continue, against the odds, to play many distinct and important roles in society and the fruits of their labour continue to be seen.”

The 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development highlighted wide-ranging and unprecedented progress in important aspects of the lives of girls and women over recent decades. According to the report, “more countries than ever guarantee women and men equal rights under the law in such areas as property ownership, inheritance and marriage. Gender gaps in primary schooling have narrowed in many countries. Globally, more women than men attend university, and women are now living longer than men in every Region of the world. In all but a handful of countries women have the right to vote.”

In the words of CARICOM Secretary-General Irwin La Roque, in his special message on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2014, “The women of our Community have shown great courage and strength as catalysts for change in the pursuit of justice, equality and peace…”

Their composite story is of unstinting public service, not only at the national, regional and international levels, but also at the community level. It is a story of integrating women into the mainstream of development; of raising national and international consciousness to a greater appreciation and acceptance of the integral role of women in the process of development. It is also a story of inspiration and mentorship to younger generations of Caribbean feminists; pioneering research work on women in the Caribbean; of positioning the Region on global agenda issues through astute leadership; of charting ways rooted in Caribbean culture, enabling us to make our way with dignity and self-esteem; of innovative work which has informed programming and policy at the national level; of raising the profile of gender and development in academia; and of breaking glass ceilings.

Underperformance of boys
The essence of their narrative is a determination to broaden the parameters of existence for women and girls and to improve their economic, social, political, cultural and legal status; a resolution to tackle the vexed question of underperformance of our Caribbean boys at every level of the education system. Theirs has been the story of gender and development; Caribbean development.

The expansion of higher education has also boosted job prospects for women, improving their value on the job market and shifting their role models from stay-at-home mothers to successful professional women. The best-educated women have always been more likely than other women to work, even after having children.

As women climb the ladder of success and become even sure of who they are, yet there will always be a level of uneasiness, insecurity, the feeling of being unsafe…the important roles of the male cannot be disregarded – to do so could indeed be to the detriment of woman.

(mercilinburke2017@gmail.com)