–to mark International Women’s Day

GENDER parity is needed and Guyana will grow when this is understood and practiced, but the environment needs to be created to allow this vision to grow and it all starts from the family unit. This sentiment was shared by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guyana Water Inc. Dr. Richard Van West-Charles during his presentation at the International Women’s Day observances hosted at the corporate complex.
Some of the women who were given tokens of appreciation were the longest serving female in customer service Denise Pollard and longest Serving female engineer Christine Thompson. In the category for women in leading roles were Human Resource Director Gale Doris, Customer Service Manager Jeannette Thomas, Executive Assistant Onika Holder, Human Resource Manager Simone Jacobs, Legal Officer Twindale Trim, Procurement Officer Shellon James, Financial Accountant Shavanie Tiwari and Martene Daw Chase. GWI has approximately 219 women in its employ.
The CEO noted that education is one of the key issues in achieving gender parity. “I want, as we celebrate and mark this day, to encourage you (women) to grow, to work together, to try to move the ceiling with respect to achieving parity and for us in Guyana it is very critical because it is important to our developmental process.”
Dr. Van West-Charles said there needs to be equity in the home, workplace and the community, which is linked to the development of a democratic society. “If in our communities, our community meetings, if in our religious organizations, we have no equitable approaches, equity in the expression of the people that participate, if we put aside the women and not give them the opportunity to participate in the organization, then having mere elections cannot classify us as being democratic.”
He noted that that Guyana had stellar performances by women such as the first female judge, Madam Justice Desiree Bernard, Winifred Gaskin and former President Janet Jagan, and many women have broken the ceiling and raised the bar for other women to aspire.
“Women have an equal role; if they apply for a job they must have an equal opportunity. One of the many things companies look at is parity in the hiring process, within the UN if there is an ad and there was not a certain level or percentage of female applicants, then the process had to be redone,” the CEO noted.
Human Resource Director Gale Doris said she envisions a day when the chief executive position will be held by a woman. Describing the event as a historic one, Doris said it is the first time the company has had an International Women’s Day observance and that is admirable.