Men need empowerment

Mar 10, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The President seems to have a fixation with statistics. But he should appreciate that he simply cannot be throwing out numbers in the hope that they will make the point which he wants to make.

At an event held for International Women’s Day (IWD), the President began throwing out statistics like the Wild West, no doubt in the hope that the numbers would validate whatever point he was making. But statistics should be carefully used, lest they end up in counter-opposition to the point being made.

The President was trying to make a point about the achievements of women in Guyana. And he quoted some very interesting statistics, not all of which supported his argument.

He said that 70% of university students are females. But this is not an achievement since it is about the same percentage in countries like the United States. In the United States, female graduation has been higher than males for decades now, and even lower down the line, females account for almost 60% of college students.

We are told also that more than seven out of every ten scholarships awarded under the GOAL programme go to women. And in terms of public service scholarships and training, the numbers are 57% and 69%. What this suggests is that when it comes to gender relations, these are areas in which men are disadvantaged.

It is therefore now up to the men to demand gender equality in terms of scholarships and university admissions. Men are being left behind in these areas.

An interesting statistic, and one which the President should fact-check, is that 80% of the persons benefitting from TVET – technical and vocational educational training – and family life training are women. But why was family life training lumped with TVET. It is doubtful whether in TVET training women are more dominant than men.

It was heartening to learn that 60% of all doctors are women. This was surprising took since there are so many males doctors around. This too needs to be fact-checked.

But the President could hardly be supporting his argument of female achievement when he said that 98% of all nurses are women. There was a time, about 50 years ago, when all the nurses would have been female. How is a98% female rate of nurses an achievement for women when it used to be 100%.

And of course, the President shot his own argument in the foot when he suggested that 22% of law enforcement persons are female, and of this only 26% are senior officers. This is nothing to be proud about and there is massive room for improvement in this area. These are statistics which are counter to the President’s line of argument.

But what the President did not provide statistics on is the number of women in positions of power. Within his government, there are two Vice Presidents. All two are males. Is it not time for him to appoint a Vice President that is a women. Is Gail Texeira not deserving of such a position? Would this not be major victory for women especially seeing that all the Vice Presidents in the APNU+AFC government were women?

In the President’s own Cabinet, only 26% or slightly more than one in every four Ministers are women. Is this an achievement? In the National Assembly, women constitute only 35% of its members. Surely these are areas in which women need to enjoy far greater representation.

The President has failed to make a case for female empowerment. The key issue for women is not participation; the key issue is women being able to hold positions of power in society, and in this regard, there is a major gap beginning inside the government.

The President should have used the opportunity of IWD to launch a nation-wide survey of the state of women in Guyana. The statistics he provided does not make a compelling case of female empowerment because for every area in which women are over-represented, there is another area in which they are underrepresented.

The President, however, by the use of his statistics has pointed to another reality. Men are being marginalized in certain areas including in health care, housing, scholarships and education. So let us hope that when International Men’s Day comes around that the President will lead the charge in demanding a greater role for men in these areas.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

empowerment, GOAL, International Women’s Day, Peeping Tom, Statistics

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Men need empowerment

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