Guyanese women have made impressive strides

Mar 09, 2021 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – Yesterday Guyana joined the rest of the world to observe International Women’s Day. There is both the good and bad, of which we seek to touch upon a few areas.
In some arenas, Guyanese women have made impressive strides. We have had a woman president, albeit under peculiar circumstances, women at senior levels in the professional ranks, which includes the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, and more and more women in the legal and medical fields, among other places. This viable presence of women extends into the private sector, especially the financial services sector. They stand as beacons for younger women with dreams of their own, with aspirations of careers and making contributions to their times and environment, while carving out a niche for themselves.
In our judicial realm, there are a number of judges in senior positions at the top of the pyramid, with the offices of Chief Justice and Chancellor of Judiciary being foremost. That is impressive. In the next breath, it is not so impressive that the two women, who hold these offices, do so in acting capacities only. That they have reached those heights is commendable in and of itself, even though they are in acting roles, which could lead anywhere. Worse yet, it is not at all impressive that these two luminous Guyanese women have been held hostage by our dirty brutish politics, and for an embarrassingly long number of years. When our political groups and their leaders make their pretty speeches about the relevance, substance, and importance of women, they would do well to remember that contradiction with what exists in this country’s judicial sector and these two women, who have proven themselves.
In our politics, women have been identified and moved up by the men in charge of the major political groups, when they are in power, to ranking positions in their cabinet, in parliament, and in party apparatus. The women have been visible and audible, sometimes very much so relative to the latter. Sometimes the selections can be traced to political pedigree, or payback for tireless political work in the trenches, or on the basis of favourable personal relationships with those who can make things happen. This is still too much an unspoken aspect of local quid pro quo in which our women pay a price in that timeless, old-fashioned manner. And last, it could be for decorative purposes. These questions may be suitable: women in Guyana are more visible, but have they progressed on the merits? Have they really progressed beyond the male mentality that is of the kitchen and barefoot?
The dark other side of Guyanese politics can be alarming when backward steps are employed by mostly male leaders. This takes shape and substance in the domain of the public service. Women can be, and have been, moved about and denied and sent packing, to align more comfortingly with racial and political agendas. In other words, they have been victimized, and without rhyme or reason, which negates long hard fought gains. There are no clean political hands in Guyana in this regard. In this the 21st century, there is no place for the thinking and practices of the culture of 100 years ago, of that lived by our ancestors and endured uninterruptedly and uncomplainingly by our female forebears.
In our wider social environment, the reviews are mixed. More girls are in school, and more women are pursuing higher education in various fields. In those areas, where doors were previously closed or considered only for men, they are now held wide open; or are either broken down and then trampled upon in a rush. It is but one of the handiworks of the modern women’s movement and ‘Girl Power’ in action and on the move. Many male chauvinist pigs feel threatened of being left behind. They don’t like it.
And the hardest and worst place where women have not progressed by much is in the home. It is mainly our women, who are constantly battered and brutalized physically, and then in every other possible way. On our streets, our young women are accosted and abused. The regard for women has all but vanished nowadays, with basic courtesies lacking in encounters with children, the expectant and the elderly. When the known statistics are assembled, there are questions, all things considered, as to whether women have made the kind of inroads and scaled the heights at the intangible levels that they should have. That is, in the mind, in the environment, in the national culture. We harbour serious doubts on this. We place this before the Guyanese people, and say: be the judge on this one.

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