Workshop promotes stronger gender policy
In the world of governance, changing official policy is never easy… but with sufficient time and pressure, it can be done. In most cases the real challenge comes in making that new policy effective in the lives of the public. Today that problem was confronted by those trying to influence Belize’s policy towards women.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The two-day workshop aims to endow women with the skills to develop a training manual that will be used to implement Belize?s national gender policy. The National Women?s Commission strongly believes such a policy will promote real development.
Jacqueline Woods
“Are you guys targeting a specific percentage of our population or is it just women in general?”
Dolores Balderamos?Garcia, Ambassador for Women & Children
“Girl, I think it is women in general, however, I think we want to give an emphasis to rural women and women at the grass roots level.”
Certainly a concern for Dr. Glenda Simms, an expert in gender relations who was invited to conduct the training sessions.
Dr. Glenda Simms, Gender Relations Expert
“The main message I am bringing to this conference is that we must be inclusive, all women must come to the table discuss the issues. We must be participatory, we must ensure that everyone has a voice; we must deconstruct some of the things that we have learnt over time. Women must look at their role in their own marginalisation, in the way we socialize our children, in the way we broker power or the lack of power at level of the home, in the workplace, etcetera. I also want to talk about some of the things we?re doing in the region, the kind of changes that have been made in Belize about the legal reform.”
One such burning issue is the lack of women’s access to property rights, whether in a marriage or common-law relationship. According to Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Ambassador for Women and Children, although the right was enacted into law many years ago, far too many women remain at a disadvantage.
Dolores Balderamos?Garcia
?It is an important aspect of the law that we have actually changed it to say that the unpaid work of women and caregivers in the home must be taken into account, whether it is for purpose of within the marriage or when the marriage comes to an end or the common-law union comes to an end. So the education that we would have to do, for example, is to say not only to boys, but to girls, you make sure your name is on that title to that property and absolutely insist in a way in which you are not threatening someone, but from a position of empowerment that if both of us are going to work in this union, both of us must benefit.”
Attending the workshop are representatives of various women?s organisations and other individuals who are expected to advocate effectively in matters of gender and development. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
Dr. Simms’ trip to Belize is made possible through funding from the Canadian International Development Agency’s Gender Equity Fund.
