Women in politics: what do they want?
“What do women want from politics?” That will be the burning question at the heart of what is being billed as a “passionate and informative” dialogue on Saturday morning in Belize City. The women’s arm of the United Democratic Party is organising the event, but coordinator Dianne Haylock says women from either side of the political spectrum are welcome to join in the discussion. Haylock says while there may not be any evidence of overt gender discrimination, there is the proverbial “glass ceiling” that is keeping women out of decision-making positions at the highest levels of government.
Dianne Haylock, Director, UDP NOW
?We feel that this is a really important question for us to ask ourselves at this point in time. Because we continue to see that women are the backbone of the political parties. They are at every level of the organisation in terms of doing the work, doing the campaigning, the demonstrating, the fundraising, you name it the women are there doing it in record numbers. But then when we start higher up in the leadership of the political parties and by extension in government, we find that they are significantly absent from there. And so we are saying what is it that is actually preventing women from getting into these positions.?
?The issues transcend the U.D.P. and the P.U.P. Let?s talk about it. Let?s hear what women are saying. Lets sit down and listen and hopefully, for us an important outcome of this meeting is to really get some key recommendations from the women who participate and certainly at the level of NOW we will see then how can see how we can translate those recommendations into reality.?
Patrick Jones
?The women?s arm of the U.D.P. is spearheading this dialogue; do you think that will detract from the overall attendance? People might look at this and say well this is a U.D.P. thing.?
Dianne Haylock
?I want to think that there are many people out there who are bigger than that, because as I said there is not going to be any U.D.P. political spiel at this thing. We have these people who are not U.D.P.?s. I mean if you look at the panel for example, there is Silvana Woods. These are women who feel passionately about these issues that we are talking about. There is Adele Catzim. I mean the thing is, forget about the party for half a day. Come, let?s sit down. Let?s talk because what you say will not benefit the U.D.P. in itself, it could benefit the P.U.P. as well.?
The keynote speaker at Saturday’s women’s dialogue is author and social researcher Sikivu Hutchinson of Los Angeles. She will be joined in the discussion by local panellists Adele Catzim, Silvana Woods and Carolyn Williams.
And what about men? According to Haylock, if they want to attend, they should be prepared to use their ears.
Dianne Haylock
?The women are the ones who have to say what it is they want from politics. And so the invitation is to women. Now if a man shows up there because he wants to listen, I don?t think that we would drive him away. But he would certainly just have to sit down and listen, but I mean we are opening the invitation to women.?
Patrick Jones
?Dianne as a Belizean woman, what is your idea on why more women are not involved at the higher ups in party politics in this country??
Dianne Haylock
?Patrick to me there is a whole lot of things that are standing in the way of women actually aspiring for the highest leadership. To a large extent, some of it may have to do with self confidence. Some of it may have to do with the lack of support to be able to…once you make that decision, there is a certain amount of support that you need. If you?re in a relationship for instance, if a man says I am going to run for politics he says to his partner I am going to do this. He goes ahead and does it and he doesn?t have to worry about all the work at home in terms of rearing the children, taking care of the family. If a woman decides to run, she has to get that support from her partner that he is going to be there beside her, taking on a lot of these responsibilities that are traditionally seen as women?s responsibilities.?
Saturday?s women?s dialogue starts at 8:30 and will be held at the conference room of the National Development Foundation in Belize City. Recommendations coming out of the discussion will be made public and presented to the leaders of both political parties. The conference is part of women?s week activities which end on Saturday.
