Over the years this newspaper has carried countless accounts of the most barbaric cruelty inflicted on women (and written countless editorials). There are currently before the High Court a total of 167 male individuals accused of rape, other sexual assaults and acts of violence performed against females many of whom are under the age of 16 and family members. To read through this list in the Official Gazette can only fill you with despair for our country along with fear for the safety and mental health of 50% of our population.
Despite the passage in 1996 of the Domestic Violence Act, seminars for the police and judi-ciary along with community outreaches, there appears to be no improvement in stemming this deviant and depraved behaviour that has far more of an impact than we might imagine.
The WomanStats Project is a donor-funded research and database project housed at Brigham Young University that collects detailed statistical data on the status of women around the world, with the aim of investigating the link between the security and behaviour of states and the situation and security of the women within them.
In other words a country can have the fanciest constitutions, quotas to create gender-balanced parliaments and even a highly educated female middle class, but what happens within the four walls of the hundreds of thousands of homes in Guyana for example has a more profound effect on our governance.
Among the indicators WomanStats collects, in its coverage of 175 countries, are the physical, financial and legal safety of women around the world. The database refers to the Ninth periodic report submitted by Guyana to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discri-mination Against Women which records that during the period 2011–2015… 157 women and girls were murdered, with the highest incidents occurring in Region 4 followed by Region 3; that “across class, ethnic, religious belief and socio-economic status, 3 in every 5 women experience physical violence by an intimate partner; 1 in every 2 women were sexually abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lives and about 3 in every 4 women has been emotionally abused by their spouse or partner”; data for the rape of women and girls by geo-graphical regions between 2011 and 2015 show a total of 1351 reported cases. According to the 2018 WHO statistical report, the suicide mor-tality rate for women is 29.2 per 100,000 (data from 2016). Separately in March of this year the police stated it had received 1,662 domestic violence reports, a 10% increase over reports made in 2019, while Help and Shelter divulged that it had recorded an increase of over 300% in calls to its hotline service between April and November last year.
The World Economic Forum Global Gender Report 2021 ranked Guyana 105/156 for economic participation and opportunity by women. Along with some 30% of households being headed by women and sharp disparities in income, financial uncertainty and insecurity are a major issue for women and probably the key shaper behind the male/female dynamics and why so many women stay in abusive relationships. It would therefore be of great interest how the concept of cash transfers from oil revenues might be crafted to possibly address women’s economic and physical safety.
All agree that the area that needs urgent improve-ment is the disparity between what are our progres-sive laws and their feeble enforcement. This is not like trying to get drivers to wear seatbelts. There is in Guyana a widespread inter-generational acceptance of domestic violence. Men hand down their cruelty to their sons. Our formative years are where certain attitudes are baked into our brains. As children we watch our parents like hawks and mimic them like parrots. Perhaps that is why our leaders are simply recreating their collective childhoods each time they hurl abuse at each other across the parliamentary benches. Or when some abuse women leaders on social media or threaten to “slap and strip” a woman activist. The GWI executive saw nothing wrong with an all-male leadership team because it simply never entered their mind. So while we prefer to think of this as mostly a working class affliction, the mindset from which springs such violence permeates all classes and it infects how we are governed.
A founder of the WomanStats Project, Professor Valerie Hudson notes “societies which are highly subordinative of women end up with far worse governments, demographics, economic performance, environmental preservation and health outcomes.” Ultimately for any country “What you do to women is what you end up doing to the nation-state,” says Professor Hudson. “If you curse women, you end up cursing your nation-state across many outcome measures.”
That is why the US State Department has made women’s rights an important part of its foreign policy.
This country remains a very dangerous place for women and girls to exist and it is no wonder that migration statistics indicate that they (more than menfolk) continue to escape these shores for countries where they feel safer, can reach their poten-tial and simply be at peace. It is of course Guyana’s loss and shame.
