First Lady, Sandra Granger yesterday said that while the Public Service is “not doing too badly” with achieving gender parity, there is still a lot more work to be done.
A release from the Ministry of the Presidency said that the First Lady was delivering remarks at the opening ceremony of a one-day Gender and Development Workshop for Permanent Secretaries at the Herdmanston Lodge. The workshop was organised by the Women and Gender Equality Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The First Lady said that a working environment which caters to the specific needs of women, provides equal pay for equal work and women’s involvement in non-traditional sectors will put Guyana on the right path.
“We need to consider whether the work environment caters to the many and diverse needs of its employees,” Mrs. Granger said, before questioning whether working women have enough access to facilities for their very young and/or school-aged children, elderly parents and children with disabilities.
She urged that special consideration be given to women where necessary, suggesting that they could have “flex time” or “work from home with specific tasks”. The First Lady complimented the Ministry of Public Health for “raising the issue of extended maternity leave for women who are breast feeding their babies”.
Meanwhile, Minister of the Public Service, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, noted that 12 out of the 17 Permanent Secretaries are women.
“What is needed is a paradigm shift in the way both men and women in leadership see and understand their roles. There are too many stories where women in leadership positions use their positions to negatively affect the lives of other women,” Sarabo-Halley said, according to the release.
