Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 08, 2010 Editorial
Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day (IWD). Even though it is just about the 100th year that the occasion is being commemorated, somehow it has not taken root in Guyana, as say, Mother’s Day.
Cynics might say that this may be due to the fact that the greeting cards companies in the west have missed the opportunity, which itself might be because the day was initially set aside by Russia and the socialist bloc.
It is an official national holiday in China, Russia and several other socialist states. In view of our leaning towards socialism historically, it is somewhat surprising that we did not pick up on the event after independence.
Socialists, of course, were horrified by the degraded status of women in almost every country in the world at that time. Women, they pointed out, could be doubly oppressed – most on account of their class and always because of their gender.
Their place in the world was defined as the kitchen. The sentiments against this state of affairs were succinctly expressed by a 1932 Soviet poster to IWD: “8th March is the day of rebellion of working women against kitchen slavery. Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of household work!” The question has to be asked as to how much has changed since then.
Sure we have had the feminist movement that has grown in leaps and bounds during the last half a century. There is no question that in many countries women have made great strides in improving their lot away from the kitchen.
But as with any change, the emancipation of women away from their bondage has unleashed great reactionary backlashes. Religion especially has been invoked to keep women in thrall. It is argued that if “the word of God” defines the role of women as being suitable only for the kitchen, who is man to raise questions. It is convenient that it has almost been men who have been the supposed conduits for God’s words.
But women continue to suffer special disabilities on account of their gender. Guyanese should have no problem accepting this observation in light of the almost daily litany of rapes, beatings, mutilations, ejections, molestations, murders etc. that is reported in our press.
For many years, the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women’s rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. In 1975, which had been designated as International Women’s Year, it gave official sanction to and began sponsoring International Women’s Day.
For this year’s IWD, the International Committee of the Red Cross is drawing attention to the hardship displaced women endure.
“The displacement of populations is one of the gravest consequences of today’s armed conflicts. It affects women in a host of ways. But far from being helpless victims, women are resourceful, resilient and courageous in the face of hardship. Women displaced by armed conflict – often living alone with their children – are frequently exposed to sexual violence, discrimination and intimidation. Many face poverty and social exclusion as well. International humanitarian law therefore includes specific provisions protecting women, for example when they are pregnant or as mothers of young children.” Think Dafur.
Less dramatically but no less significantly is the stubborn refusal of most employers, not only in Guyana but even in the developed world, to give women equal pay for equal work.
This is an issue that needs to be placed on the front burner on the social and political agenda in our country. While more and more women are entering the workforce as our economy modernises and become integrated further into global relationships, their wage-gap differential places an undue burden on their continued progress.
The ground still to be covered can be gleaned from the expectation that having one-thirds of the Members of Parliament be women should be signs of “equality”.
Women, we should be reminded, have consistently made up more than half of our population. The bottom line is that they should be equal in all spheres. Not identical: merely equal.
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
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