Latest update April 14th, 2026 12:38 AM
Glass ceiling cracking
(Kaieteur News) – For over a century the struggle by women for equality has ebbed and flowed. Committed women led the way, focused their energies, and pushed against a male-dominated world. Success came slowly, arrived in drips and drabs in the early days. Any progress was hailed as an achievement, and seen as incentive to fight some more to get some more for the rightful place of women. Cumulatively, it could be said with fairness that women have done well, but there are still more battles to be fought, more ground to cover.
From the U.S. to India to Israel to Pakistan and Europe, women rose so high that they once reigned in the highest offices in their native lands. Former secretary of State and First Lady, Hilary Rodham Clinton came close to leading the Free World from the White House. Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi and some others have held very high offices in the U.S. Government structure. More recently Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman of mixed descent which Guyanese have as major segments in their own demographic mix, ran well for president of the U.S., but came up short. Outstanding progress by brave and determined women into unthinkable territory in the U.S. The previous U.S. ambassador to Guyana was a woman, with another replacing her. In the U.S. that may be taken for granted nowadays, but how incredible was the rise of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Benazir Bhutto in their respective male-centric countries! In Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania each rose to become president. If they could wear the mantle national leader in their countries, with all the religious and cultural barriers, then it could be said that women have edged forward and soared high, that the glass ceiling has started to crack.
In this region, one not without its gender prejudices, from Janet Jagan to Mia Mottley to Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in times past and present, have risen to the top in a profession where the place of men is taken for granted, and that of women is seen as a rarity, if not an abnormality. Through persistence and grit, and the confluence of circumstances, women have striven and some of them have succeeded in careers from which they were barred, the mere thought forbidden. From construction engineers to airline pilots to combat soldiers, women are everywhere, have scored high marks.
In medicine and law, Guyana can boast of an increasing number of female presences. A former Minister of Health (Volda Lawrence), a former acting Chancellor of the Judiciary (Yonette Cummings-Edwards) and an acting Chief Justice now acting chancellor in the presence of Roxanne George-Wilshire have made Guyanese proud by their strides that took them high. Though national elections are now just over six months past, a woman is said to be in the forefront of the government’s vision for president of Guyana in 2030, when the next elections are due.
By any yardstick, a credible claim can be made that women have achieved. We agree and we commend them for their efforts in coming out of the kitchen, pushing against the barriers, and inching ahead. We think that inching ahead is a fair estimation, for those who have excelled have one common denominator that sets them apart. At the core, in the free ranging of their visions, they were and are overachievers. Self-confident women who become self-made women, ones to be respected and cheered for standing out as role models for their similarly insightful and driven sisters. The glass ceiling that presses against the heads of women has shown signs of cracking in different places. But by no means should it be said to have shattered and collapsed.
Old cultural prejudices, and old resistances, do not die easily. In less exposed countries, many men still feel insecure by the arrival of women, see them as threats to their monopoly in certain professions, have difficulty accepting them on the merits, and as equals. The latter is a bitter pill to swallow, the yielding doesn’t come easy, for many. Nonetheless, women have moved up, earned their places. Joyful International Women’s Day to all women, and remember the journey still has some miles to go.
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