Every year, Guyana joins other countries in the world to mark International Women’s Day under various themes which centre on women’s rights, gender equality, wealth, and gender roles. There was much introspection and reflection on the progress or lack thereof made by Guyanese women over the past few decades with Non-Governmental Organisations last year and this year which resulted in official Government agencies setting goals and objections for achieving more progress by next year and beyond.
For the most parts, women were celebrated, admired, and praised. They were viewed as heroines because of the struggles they have endured and the challenges they face daily in ensuring that they play the role of the traditional woman as outlined in writings in the religious books, while aspiring to break barriers and crack glass ceilings as part of the process of metamorphosis in order to become the new ‘modern woman’.
There were those women who lived in the moment and blushed in the midst of being praised and celebrated. They made the most of it by attending all of the ceremonies and festivities associated with the day because they felt duty-bound to ensure that the voices of women were amplified on this day and the challenges they faced also highlighted.
But there were those women who were no doubt more conscious. They held firm to the view that the state of the girl child could not be improved by mere reflection and introspection on one day.
It would take more than attending mundane workshops and conferences to ‘talk’ about women’s rights and issues to solve the problems facing women in the world today. UN speeches and public releases by organisations lobbying the world over for gender equality, though appreciated, could not create the level of awareness to create real and lasting change while forcing a paradigm shift in thinking patterns of the still largely male-dominated world.
What was needed was ‘immediate action’ by women themselves to rise up and challenge the stereotypes and prejudices that seek to keep them in their so-called ‘place’. Women needed to rise up in large numbers and make a determined effort to rebel against all of the draconian laws as well as unwritten policies that promoted inequality, maybe not intentionally, in the work place, education system, marriage agreement, class structure, and other areas of their life.
In Guyana, women needed to express outrage against the rising levels of domestic abuse and violence against their kind. They needed to protest and take a firm stance against the attacks on women in the judiciary by leading members of the current Government. They needed to lobby the authorities in order to compel them to do more to safeguard women against rape, childhood marriages and suicide. The Guyanese women needed to send a stronger message that women deserve better health care while demanding that immediate changes are made at hospitals across the country where women have to deliver children so that the downward spiral of maternal deaths could commence.
Our women missed a golden opportunity to also seek out and motivate suitably qualified women folk to run again for the presidency by going against the norms within the various political parties in order to challenge the concept of male supremacy and the theory that men are born better leaders. As it stands, women in Guyana appear satisfied with being seen as conservative, compassionate and compliant beings. They seem comfortable with the current gender role that they are playing and whatever benefits they have accrued.
This is most unfortunate because Guyanese women possess a special finesse and strength that make them iconic and unconquerable. It sets them apart from persons of the same gender elsewhere geographically. They also possess a fighting spirit and the will to achieve success in areas where women traditionally would not dare step. If women here, therefore, are to be “bold for change”, they must first start the process internally and mentally in order to have a lasting and real impact on the affairs of the world in a more meaningful way.
The future of the girl child is at stake in a world of some many emerging gender cultures and preferences. They must stand tall and stand firm in unity. Like Hillary Clinton and Janet Jagan, they must not miss opportunities to crack glass ceilings because they understand their worth and value. This is no longer a man’s world.
