No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” – Michelle Obama
Wednesday, March 8, was International Women’s Day, commemorated under the theme, “Be bold for change”.
And though respect for women has come a long way from the days when women were confined to only domestic duties, it’s still proof that we still have a long way to go if there still needs to be a massive global event to remind the world of the achievements of the women in society. Not to mention the need to treat them equally.
This year’s observation also falls four days before the 100th anniversary of the end of indentureship. While between 1838 and 1917 some 239,000 Indians were shipped into Guyana as “bound labour” only a third of them were women. While to some nowadays it might be an attractive proposition for some females to consider, back then, it did lead to much turmoil as the Indians who chose to remain in Guyana slowly tried to form a community. But an intriguing question presents itself when you look back at the historical record. While they were out there working just as the men and having the upper hand in selecting their spouses – you would think? – Within the next generation after 1917, the women had generally settled back into the patriarchal system of India and the colony. And today, twenty-two years after its adoption by the UN at the end of the Fourth World Conference on Women on September 15, 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action remains the most comprehensive international blueprint for advancing women’s human rights. The Platform for Action is an agenda for women’s empowerment.
As part of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, UN Women undertook a global review and appraisal of implementation. Twenty years on from the commitments made in Beijing, no country has achieved gender equality.
Queen’s College, the premier secondary school in Guyana, has a population of mostly girls. We out-performed the boys at Common Entrance or NGSA, to earn places at QC. And then went on to excel there. But even after all of that, when we’re done with school and ready to have jobs, we’ll be working in a ‘man’s world’ – a world where women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts.
A world where women have to work doubly hard: first do their job, and simultaneously work to prove to the doubters that they’re good enough to deserve to be where they are.
We’ve come a long way, yes. Women can vote now. Women attend college. There are female doctors, astrophysicists, astronauts. But we still have a ways to go.
The feminists of the 1960’s and 1970’s era made great strides towards shifting society’s attitude in the direction of women’s equality. But unfortunately, now, years later, when many of the big battles have already been won by the feminists of old, younger women take some of the rights that they have now for granted. They truly believe that they owe nothing to feminism and they don’t have to continue the struggle.
Women have the right to vote and they might be elected President. But how many are? Why? They might make brilliant discoveries, like Marie Curie, the only double winner in the Nobel Prize. But what women really need, and what all the battles have essentially been all about, is respect. Women need to be respected. They deserve to be respected. But first, they need to start respecting themselves.
So until women are accepted for the great things that they do every day, until they are respected every day, until they can participate equally in the economy, we need to march in the streets for International Women’s Day. And in Guyana, under the notion of intersectionality, as an Indian woman, ask whether in my own country there are specific and separate disabilities I face that I must struggle to overcome.
