Jacquelyn Hamer is a retired Guyanese diplomat and a Director of the skills training organization Visions of Excellence.

By Jacquie Hamer

One of the interesting things that I have noted about the forty six persons who have so far occupied the presidency of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is that all of them have been men. I have no right to pass a gender-based judgment about the fact that never in its history has the Chamber elected a woman to its presidency. Perhaps it has to do with the disproportionate number of women who have served as captains of industry or, perhaps, with the likelihood that women have simply not been interested in being elevated to high office within the Chamber. Whatever the reason, the domination of high office within the GCCI by men is a matter of historical fact and one which, in my view, ought to be rectified sooner, rather than later.

When you think of women in business your thoughts rest, immediately, on Mrs. Lila Kissoon, whose husband’s untimely death several years ago left her in charge of Guyana’s first and most enduring furniture business. True, her second husband and the rest of her family have played important roles in the growth and development of the business but when you think that Mrs. Kissoon herself, a woman who must by now be in her eighties, is still very much active in business, you have to concede the uniqueness of the woman and the fact that she is surely an example to follow.

Women, nonetheless, have remained the lesser players in local business and while I am sure that there are handful of others who have ‘come through, business in Guyana has, more or less been a man’s world; that is, of course, except you take account of the large number of small and micro-businesses that have been difficult to manage, are fraught with uncertainty and many of which frequently fail and some times even fail to ever get off the ground.

The vast majority of our urban street vendors, for example, are women. They are a hardy breed who brave the elements, frequently considerably neglect their children and toil for profit margins that are only just enough to keep themselves and their children going, frequently, in the absence of fathers. There are those women who dominate the cottage industries,. handicraft, dressmaking, preserves’ manufacturing, snackettes and the like. Here again, these are business pursuits that offer relatively small profit margins and certainly do not afford the kind of prominence which the more recognized business pursuits provide. Here, I am seeking to suggest that since women, by an large, occupy the lower rungs on the business ladder they clearly need and, in my view deserve, much more support in the growth and development of their business enterprises. Not only must women in business work much harder in order to succeed but they must do so, invariably, while making levels of personal sacrifice which, arguably, are much greater than the sacrifices that men have to make.

If, therefore, the GCCI can perhaps be forgiven for never in its history having elected a woman to its presidency, it seems to me that a strong case has existed for the Chamber doing much more to promote and support the advancement of women in business. I believe, for example, that the GCCI can be instrumental in advancing the status of women in business by:

Providing a mentoring service to which women seeking to start businesses and women involved in small and micro-businesses can look for various forms of support.

Organizing training programmes that can help women in small and micro businesses to learn various critical skills including management, marketing and planning.

Lobbying banks and other lending institutions to enhance access by women to business loans.

Organizing clusters of women in business (the urban female vending community would, perhaps be a good place to start) to ensure that they secure access to goods (include raw material for craft and small-scale manufacturing) at reasonable prices.

Promoting the expansion of Child Care programmes to ensure the greater safety and comfort of the children of women in business.

These are just a few of the areas that come to mind at this time and the newness of the incumbent President of the GCCI affords him an opportunity to reflect on an initiative which would not only enhance the well-being of women in business but would also significantly enhance the image of the Chamber itself. It concerns me considerably as indeed it should the GCCI and the various other private sector bodies that women, as a group are more-or-less left to go it alone without any real help from the substantive business community. During a recent visit to the Water Street Vendors Arcade it occurred to me that the vendors there, mostly women could use some help. If they never really grumble a great deal it is quite obvious that the Arcade has not been as good a place of business as they would have hoped. More can be done by the Chamber and the wider business community to help these women aggressively promote the arcade as a place of business.