Women Conference on Inclusion in History

The Building People Movement and Belize Women’s Political Movement held their first annual policy conference. The two organizations brought women leaders together from a number of schools and organizations to discuss how they can get women recognized for their contributions and included in the historical accounts on they have shaped Belize. Dorla Bowman says that they want to move forward with the “Women Can Govern” book that they launched back in December.

Dorla Bowman

Dorla Bowman, President, Building People Movement

“Specifically, the policy that we are looking at today is pertaining to including certain things in the primary school curriculum and the secondary school curriculum that will bring about equality for women and men, especially in the area of our history lessons, our social studies lessons, in our textbooks to share the achievements of women – Belizean women. It is to write women back into our Belizean history because there are many women who have contributed towards the development of Belize and this will help the people of Belize; the young students of Belize; to grow up realizing that as young women and men are important for the of our country.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, now you have this book that you’ve written. I know the Minister of Education was here today with you – was there any kind of discussion about getting this particular book as a part of the curriculum? Was there anything tangible that came out? Is this something that he is going to consider?”

Dorla Bowman

“Well, we deliberately invited the Minister of Education to be the Guest Speaker of this conference and to open this conference for us. In his speech, he made a commitment to have further discussions with us and he is looking forward to including the stories of women in the curriculum and to be taught in schools. And that means we have to do much more research in order to extend the information we have in the book.”