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As the world marks International Women’s Day and we celebrate and recognise the strength of our women and promote their right to equal opportunities, we as a people must first look in our homes, look at our daughters, our mothers, our wives and our female generations. What would life be around the world without women? To honestly answer that question, as it stands right now, I do not know what the future holds because science is evolving and there are changing roles in society. But what I do know is that there will be no life without women because women are essential to the reproductive process.
Without our women there will be no regeneration of society, for it is the male and female coming together that gives rise to another human being. Not only must we thank them for carrying us to term but nurturing and protecting us. Women are truly wonderful beings. If we believe in the story of creation that woman came after man, then we know that God did not make a mistake. When He made woman He improved on his previous masterpiece, and today I pause to honour every woman in the 83,000 square miles of our beloved Guyana: every woman, regardless of race, class, colour and political affiliation, even those sitting opposite me in Parliament.
I especially remember my mother and honour the memories of all my female generations, and all my beautiful female relatives.
A mother will feed her children before she eats and will go without to make sure her children have. Yours is a legacy of sacrifice, unselfishness and when you came out of the home to earn an income you continue your two jobs- out of the home and in the home- sometimes under the harshest conditions. There was and still is no union for that second job in the home to determine your pay, no pension, and sometimes not enough recognition and gratitude, but you were and still are happy to provide for your home. A mother is a home economist, a manager, nurse, teacher and many other things, stretching a dollar to add more value. These are truths that we must not forget.
The history of Guyana’s working-class and independence struggles cannot be detailed without mentioning women at the forefront such as Kowsilla, Jane Phillips-Gay, Janet Jagan, Winifred Gaskin and others.
We of this generation may not have lived it but heard stories that one of the things that kept women away from work was childbearing and loss of income as a result, until the advent of maternity benefit from the National Insurance Scheme.
The expansion of new policy, during the Forbes Burnham government, allowed girls to have easier access to higher education, which in turn allowed women to take up greater leadership roles and work in various skilled areas, initially dominated by men. Not only have we seen women ranking high in the military, but in other areas, from mining to driving and working on heavy duty vehicles, engineers, to even holding the highest office in the land, with the first woman holding such position being Mrs. Viola Burnham, followed by Mrs. Janet Jagan.
Notwithstanding the many achievements of a small nation such as ours, with a population of less than a million, we must continue to invest in our human capital, in particular our girls and women. Women and girls remain the most vulnerable groups in society. The recent COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports, has negatively impacted their development.
The Gender and Health Analysis: COVID-19 in the Americas report, launched on International Women’s Day 2022 revealed that gender inequality is an ongoing social, economic, political and health crisis, made worse by the pandemic. PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne, speaking to the report, pointed out that the statistics highlighted “where we need to work harder to create a more equitable, resilient and sustainable future.”
We must ensure our women and girls are not left behind in this rapidly advancing technological period. We want early exposure of our girls, and programmes to facilitate in developing technological skills. We must have easy and reliable internet access and computers in every school from primary level. As a matter fact, we must have the vision to help our girls function in a rapidly advancing technological workforce.
We remember the PPP’s ‘every house a laptop’ programme. A nation, such as ours, could ill afford a discriminatory programme where some homes are awaiting a laptop; or they have a laptop but don’t know how to use it; or have a laptop but no electricity to power it and when they have electricity, they have no reliable internet or cannot afford internet. We need the technology, the equipment and good internet. These things must not be privileged but in every single school, from Region One to Region 10, for all our children and ensuring that girls and women are benefiting equally.
Our female population represents half of society (49.67%). No society can develop with half its population left behind. Women are being encouraged to take up their rightful place in society and even as I say this, I encourage my menfolk, particularly those on the opposite side of Parliament, to help make this possible. We are all in this together. We cannot lift our family up unless we lift our women and our girls up. It is time we be serious about our national development, a development that must be evenhanded.
