More needs to be done to address gender inequality – DeSouza

Woman rights activist, Karen DeSouza is calling for more to be done to tackle women and gender inequality and to examine the policies and practices with regards to this issue.

DeSouza feels that enough is not being done to address women and gender equality in Guyana, although there has been plentiful talk about working towards

addressing this social problem.

While the Social Protection Ministry has said it plans to produce a policy to address this, the award-winning human rights activist told Guyana Times in a recent interview that this might not be useful.

“Producing another document, while it might be useful, does not take us from where we are at the moment. So, there are a number of areas of concern in terms of women actually being regarded as equal and equal partners in society,” she stated.

Nevertheless, DeSouza said Guyana has very good laws that recognise the equality of women; however, implementation and practice of these laws are not occurring.

The women rights activist pointed to many examples where women are still being treated unequal to men. One such example is the terms of division of property at the end of a relationship.

Speaking of other types of inequalities, the head of Red Thread told this publication that she has come across many cases where married women have to get her husband’s signature to conduct business.

“We still have a situation where in certain circumstances where a woman who is married, while it is true she could keep her own name, there are some cases where there is that insistence where the husband’s name must be used instead,” she recognised.

While these issues may appear to seem small, DeSouza said that they do tend to reduce the premise of equality of women.

“I think it is still true that in certain places of employment, women still do not earn the same as men, even when they work the same hours and have the requisite qualification.”

Another important point that should be taken into account by Government and other policymakers is the need to ensure that women are not treated unfairly if they become pregnant.

She said, “If we are serious about gender equality, we need to find a way that a woman who is employed does not lose her seniority in her employment because of her biology.”

“So we expect a woman to get pregnant, we expect a woman to get children but she is going to get penalised for that biology,” she further added.

DeSouza pointed to cases where this has happened before, including the incident which involved two female Constabulary officers being fired because they were pregnant.

She said while recourse was taken in that and other cases, it should never meet a point where women have to feel less important because she chooses to become pregnant.

“I think that practice is most likely in breach of the Constitution which offers equal rights. The non-discrimination of labour law, as well under the grounds of sex, gender or race,” she added. DeSouza said the reality is that these are discriminatory practices which appears not be discriminatory because it has been done forever, stressing that everyone need to find ways to address them.