A quintet of gender and equal rights support groups yesterday said that in order to create long-term, positive change in the lives of women, gender equality must also result in equal opportunity and pay for women’s work.
In their joint message on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (LBT) Women’s Network (GY Sista Friends) Stella’s Sisterhood for Service and Support (S4) Foundation, Red Thread, Guyana Rainbow Foundation (GuyBow) and SASOD united in celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of Guyanese women.
Local women have excelled despite the challenges they face “living in our patriarchal society,” the groups said. They also noted that despite efforts to empower women, leading roles in many sectors of the formal economy are still heavily dominated by men.
“In order to create meaningful, positive change, gender equality must also result in both equality of opportunity and outcome for women and men alike. Women must have access to the same opportunities, as well as equal pay for work of the same value, as men,” the groups said.
“We also need to value women’s caring work,” said Karen De Souza, National Coordinator of Red Thread. She noted that women are often trapped in abusive relationships because of their economic circumstances, so valuing the caring work that women do in their homes and communities is critical to ending violence.
Although Guyana has “good laws” on its books aimed at ending violence against women, gender-based violence has reached pandemic proportions. Imarah Radix, Project Coordinator of the S4 Foundation said, “Each one of us has a role to play in ending domestic violence and we must recognise this. “We cannot wait on the police of the courts to make a judgement; as facts have shown that even though someone may have a court order, they are killed in the middle of the night, at home, in bed, by their partners.”
Additionally, Colleen McEwan, Executive Director of GuyBow and member of Guy Sista Friends, pointed out that attitudes toward discrimination and violence against all women, including lesbian, bisexual and transgender women must change. “We must challenge discrimination and violence wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head,” she said.
According to the release, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Con-vention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) in 1970, to which Guyana is a party. The Cedaw committee meets regularly – one year after a country ratifies the Convention and every four years thereafter – to review reports submitted by governments on the progress towards its implementation. In its most recent review of Guyana, in New York in July 2012, the Committee urged Guyana to provide effective protection against violence and discrimination against all groups of women and to “decriminalise consensual adult same sex relations.”
As such, the groups challenged every person to play their part in creating a society where women are empowered and have equal opportunities to their male counterparts. Every Guyanese woman has a right to the freedoms enshrin-ed in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the statement said. “Our groups remain committed to advancing progress for all women in every sphere of their lives,” the release said.
