Women taking up positions in a changing workplace

– even as they are still very much under-represented in many major roles

AS the conversation on women continues, Guyana may be able to sit-in comfortably, however many studies have repeatedly shown the same facts – that there is far too great a gender gap between the major roles of women as against that of men and that there are many reasons for this.

However, in countries such as Guyana, women are looked up to from Kindergarten, through primary – fully covering the formative years; then to a large extent in secondary schools, as well as the University of Guyana. At other postsecondary levels such as trade schools and technical institutions, fewer women are found in leading roles.

Outside of being a mother, many women in Guyana work very hard. Separate from teaching, women work as security guards (many of them); sell in the markets; clean the markets, drains and public toilets; domestic workers within homes, but are also the main housecleaners in hotels, workplaces and more. Though some may consider these to be low-level work, just imagine no one was doing these jobs how uncomfortable it would have been for everyone.

Women excel though in many other major roles within this and other societies. In some countries they are presidents or prime ministers; then they are bank managers, company directors; principals of large schools – private and public; ministers of government(s); doctors; engineers; publicists and many more.

But women are also some of the best art and craft creators – they do well with creative artwork for display, hammocks, baskets, cutleries, jewellery and the likes. And in some cases, they come up with some novel ideas to create some of their work.

The element of culture, the promotion of art
Activist for the empowerment of Indigenous women, Laureen Pierre, in an invited comment said, “Now this is a time when we know that Amerindian women have had these special [art] skills and we know that they can use it and they are refining their craft and their skills…the next step is how to market it – how to make it economical as they continue to use their pride and the skill that they have and not be discouraged.

“When they put all that effort into it and all that money, they need to have sales and to ensure that it can all sustain them…because it is one thing to have pride in your culture, but then [you need] to get to the next step; to be successful and to market what you make.

“Most of my understanding about the advancement of women though, comes from the other aspect of my life, which is being a Bahia and where we talk about the equality of men and women and ways in which things should happen and so that is what for me is the wholeness, the completeness – the child, the parent, the community – these are always my focus. How are these working together; when we are doing something how does it relate to that because it just can’t be an individual, it has to be a community,” she said. Pierre added that as a mother she has also learnt of a more ‘community life’; the importance of neighbours assisting each other.

TRANSFORMING SOCIETY
She stated that based on some amount of evidence, abuse and neglect are still so high, especially among some Amerindian areas and so she questioned the economic factors, especially in activities such as mining – whether they are contributing to the breakdown in society, to the breakdown in culture, the breakdown in family life, she questioned.
“So when we begin to think of women or anybody in terms of transforming society … you have to look at these challenges that are now being posed by those economic activities. At the time when the communities were more isolated and they weren’t having these kinds of activities they might have had other challenges, but what’s happening now must be considered” she said.

Pierre said that, especially as women, they have to become more conscious and speak about the issues – addressing issues affecting the children, the young people and to seek answers to questions such as, “How can urban and rural men and women cope, looking at the issues of institutional support from government structures to help them through this phase because this is indeed a challenging period,” she said.

She said that 30 years ago there were challenges; 50 years ago there were also challenges, and now there are new challenges.
Hinterland Scholarship Programme
“What’s on the table for discussion in terms of ‘educating’ women (and even men) in general, but Amerindian women in particular, in relation to the changing workplace and their position in Guyana?” Pierre asked.

As a woman who has dedicated a lot of her time and energies toward working with Amerindian women especially, she tendered the attitude of a continued willingness to make whatever contribution she is asked to make. She felt that the cards must be put on the table and the consciousness must be there to address the issues and so ensure that no woman is left behind – no woman is taken advantage of.

The Hinterland Scholarship Programme (HSP) was on for many years, almost a decade when ‘we’ decided to form a club around 1975 – the people on the executive were myself, Dr George Norton and a few others and emphasised that it is still going. We were pulling over a hundred students to meetings, trying to form a group and we used to plan parties and so on and we also used to study together, encourage each other and we were concerned about every other person in that group; we were all hinterland students struggling, she said.

“We still have the programme here, it continues and we do have a lot of young people out here and now we have a building; everybody lives in a building. In those days we lived in different barrack rooms, but now we have a building, people may be more comfortable.”

COMMUNITY SPIRIT
Pierre was proud to say that the HSP was one place in which there was community spirit; a lot of reinforcing of cultural values, but at the same time a lot of these students move on to different places and do not go back into their communities to share and to help reinforce and to instil values – this should be addressed, she said.

The concerns of women and their well-being go a long way and therefore issues such as drugs, lack of employment or employment that are not exploitative must be dealt with if lives are going to be transformed, Ms Pierre said.

“We must work with communities to address these issues; we must also work with agencies to address these issues,” she said. In this, she expressed concerns that a ‘strong band of social workers’ might not be in some of the interior locations who can deal with some of the underlining issues.

“We are not getting the full context of exactly what’s happening to society now. There is the need for a lot more intervention and while the social workers are doing their jobs, I think we need some more specialised professional people to intervene,” Pierre said.

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