Forum discusses getting women into leadership positions
Gender discrimination and marginalisation due to cultural and traditional practices are only two of the reasons why there is a distinct lack of women in leadership roles in countries across the world … But today some of these women leaders huddled at the Radisson to see how they can change the status quo. Kendra Griffith reports.
Ann-Marie Williams, Executive Dir., National Women’s Commission
“Women have continued to gain ground in virtually every imaginable area of public life from politics in business to science, academia and sports. But in spite the progress, women are still fighting their way in from the margins.”
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Ceremonies were held this morning in Belize City for the opening of a workshop entitled “Women and Leadership in the Caribbean: A Policy Dialogue.” The three-day activity is hosted by the Women’s Department and organised and funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Caribbean branch of the United Nations Fund for Women, UNIFEM.
Elsie-Bernadette Onubogu, Gender Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat
“The Commonwealth Ministers responsible for women’s affairs in 2004 in Fiji Islands adopted the plan of action which is our frame work for action that will guide us from 2005 to 2015. In that plan of action the ministers recommended that every Commonwealth member country should at least pursue a minimum, and the emphasis is minimum, target of thirty percent women’s representation not just in government but at all the district levels, and in all sectors. Within the public sector within the Caribbean, only two countries, Grenada and Guyana have achieved the thirty percent women’s representation in government and decision making. The story of women’s representation in the private sector is indeed not even encouraging.”
Roberta Clarke, Regional Prog. Dir., UNIFEM
“The regional average is sixteen percent of Caribbean parliaments, sixteen percent of the parliamentarians in the Caribbean are women. In today’s Barbados for example only six of sixty people who ran in elections in the general elections were women in 2008 or that in Belize no woman sits in the elected House.”
Starting today, the women gathered around this table will be working to see how they can advance women’s participation across all sectors. One vehicle is the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership, CIWIL.
Hazel Brown, CIWIL Steering Committee
“So far what we have done is basically providing in the concept of an institute training, support, advice for women who want to engage or participate at leadership levels.”
Elsie-Bernadette Onubogu
“The challenge before us within the next three days therefore is to define the how to make the change happen for the Caribbean and implement the how through a vibrant plan of action for the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership.”
Hazel Brown
“We will formally launch CIWIL here. All of it has been discussions and trial and errors and we will formally launch it here. We have a draft of a constitution, so we know what structures we want to use, what principles we will follow.”
For Acting Director of the Women’s Department, Icilda Humes, the workshop is timely.
Icilda Humes, Acting Director, Women’s Department
“As we are moving towards municipal elections early next year, we feel that it is very important that we get women involved in leadership more in this country. And whereas the forum is about leadership in various aspects, for us in Belize when it comes to women’s political leadership that is one of our priority issues.”
Andrea Gill, President, Senate
“I remember when I got the call to be the president of the senate, I hesitated you know and I thought of all the little things, being young still, not starting a family yet, that was one of my big concerns, how I would try to balance all of these things.”
Humes is hoping that more women like Senate President Andrea Gill will step up and choose leadership … and that CIWIL will assist in the effort.
Icilda Humes
“We are hoping at the end of this meeting when we have looked at the structure of the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership we will be able to look at what role Belize will play in that institute, how we can get more support in terms of training, resources for potential politicians in Belize.”
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
