No progress in gender equality in Guyana – UK Diplomat bemoans

… says population lacks will to effect change

By Vahnu Manikchand

British High Commissioner to Guyana, Gregory Quinn, has stated that there is an obvious lack of will in the fight against gender inequality amongst the Guyana population.
The British envoy made this blunt assessment on Thursday at a press conference held at his Bel Air Gardens, Georgetown, residence. He pointed out frankly that during his two plus years stint here, there has been “no progress in achieving gender equality in Guyana”.
“The reason for that is not a lack of will on the part of the Government but the reason is a lack of will on the part of the population, and the lack of will on the part of the people in the country to address the fundamental issues which exist,” the British High Commissioner declared.
According to the UK diplomat, there are far too many men and women in the country who believe that practices in the past are still acceptable today such as women being treated as second class citizens, husbands hitting their wives/girlfriends or child.
“…that is something which I think should bring shame to every man and woman who thinks that is acceptable so it is up to the population and the people to actually stand up against something which is fundamentally wrong on so many levels,” he posited.
The UK envoy outlined that while treating everybody equally is obviously the right thing, it is beneficial economically. “You can’t develop a country if 50 per cent of the population find themselves in a subservient position,” he contended.
The David Granger-led coalition Administration has been vocal about the fight against gender inequality, as well as women and child rights matters. In fact, back in August 2015, the Head of State revealed a five-point plan to promote opportunities for women during the inaugural ‘National Conference on the Gender and Development Policy.’
Moreover, at this year’s International Women’s Day observance, President Granger implored the population to change their attitude towards gender equality. He had pointed out that while Guyana has made strides in terms of women empowerment, more efforts need to be undertaken to move the process much further, and much faster, in order to dismantle the structural impediments to gender equality so that Guyana can fulfil its commitment under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 5, which is to achieve “gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
“We have to change our attitude to gender equality… We can move much further by removing the barriers to gender equality by ensuring that geographic, occupational, political and racial differences are diminished. We can do so by empowering women by ensuring that our communities, committees, commissions and our councils at all levels are more representative. We can do so by providing more opportunities for women’s employment by developing small and micro industries in villages and communities and by encouraging corporations to promote qualified women to executive positions,” the President had stated back in March.
He had also assured that Guyana will honour its commitment to empower women and educate and protect girls, particularly in four key areas: empowerment, education, employment and gender equality.
According to the latest World Bank statistics on international levels of employment, the ratio of female to male labour force participation in 2013 showed that women globally are less likely than men to participate in the labour market, that is, less likely to be employed or actively looking for work.
The World Bank explained that “female participation in employment is high and the gender gap low in many low-income countries where women are engaged in unpaid subsistence agriculture, although they are less involved in paid activities outside the household.
Women also tend to be active in high-income countries, where over two-thirds of the female adult population participate in the labour market and the gender gap in labour force participation rates is less than 15 per cent on average.”
The study placed Guyana at the 154th spot, which showed the country’s ratio increasing from 48.2 per cent in 2003 to 52.9 per cent in 2013. It was noted that while the figure is still lower than the average of 68.4 per cent for Latin American and Caribbean (developed) countries, it shows that Guyana is moving in the right direction.