International Women’s Day

Mar 08, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Women have come a long way, risen high, shattered glass ceilings in some places. Though women have traveled long, grueling roads, the way forward is still tricky, with many treacherous curves to be navigated. Guyanese women, our wives and daughters, our sisters and fellow workers, and our female citizens, have also grown from who and what and where they were before. But, again, there is so much more to be done. The women in Guyana are held as our treasured vessels, our fellow strivers and builders, and our invaluable partners in the demanding work ahead.

We have had more and more women as leaders in the local arena. Educators, ministers, business and religious leaders, even one as a national leader. Among the leading voices for better in Guyana, there are some strong, fearless women very much in the middle of the fight. In fact, it is more accurate to assert that our brave women have been in the forefront for a safer, cleaner, healthier Guyana. They have been present in battles over the environment, about what is safe and sound for their families and their wider communities. Their works have been in the city, as well as in the deep hinterlands, as truth and justice are made into priorities, a voice is given to the troubles of the voiceless.

These are the Guyanese women that have made us proud, and we call them our sisters, for so they are. On this International Women’s Day, we salute them, and urge them to keep pressing ahead, maintain the good works. But for every one woman who steps forward to represent the richness of true citizenship, there are dozens, a hundred, that are content to let the world pass them by unaddressed. Their children may not have as much as they should; their own stomachs gnaw with emptiness and anxiousness from needing, about what to do, and from the weaknesses of their stillness.

This country is at a stage that it needs more of its womenfolk to stand up, and to speak up. They must, since they are the ones who know best how much their families are pressured, how often they are forced to an undignified existence in a country that has so much. It is the women who know of the plights of the other women in their communities, their extended families, and in their other spheres of activity. They know more than their men folk, for they carry the weight of the family’s needs on their heads, and in their hearts. Because it is frequently women who are the driving forces in their homes, the go-getters, then they must be able to inspire their husbands and their sons and their brothers to a greater awareness of what is at stake in this new Guyana that has been given to us, but from which so many are squeezed out.

The life of women has been of second class citizens, so they know about what it means to be disrespected and ill-treated, even traumatized to this day. Regarding the latter, this savagery is still ongoing in today’s Guyana, but that is another uphill struggle that continues. The progress that has been made by women in Guyana must be harnessed and leveraged for still more progress. Nothing that is worthwhile comes easily or freely, but has to be fought for, with great sacrifices made. Guyana is at this stage today, and more women need to be in the fight for betterment. They know this is what went on before, which is why there is today, an International Women’s Day, an acknowledgement, and honour, that is hard-earned, and due in its every essence and fiber.

Local leaders are not willing to make decisions that would make the lives of Guyanese poor more manageable. Local leaders prefer to giveaway Guyana’s riches to their foreign bedfellows, so that both groups profit more. Whatever will be had, whatever is to be gained, in Guyana will have to be battled for, and women have their part to play. They have been sick and tired of the lies fed to them before; our women should recognize the deceptions and dangerousness of what leaders are doing to them and this country today.

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business, Educators, Guyanese, International Women’s Day, Ministers

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