President of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Guyana, Rowena Elliot, has told the Stabroek Business that while Guyanese businesswomen have, over time, arrived at a point where some of them are now “leading and owning sizeable businesses,” women are still “not quite where we want to be” in terms of the extent of their ascendancy up to this time. “We do recognize the strides made here in Guyana but the proverbial glass ceiling still exists in this regard, the Head of the Local Women’s Chamber told the Stabroek Business in an interview published in this issue of the Stabroek Business.
And according to the Guyanese businesswoman, “The glass ceiling hurts businesses, organisations, and all of society by limiting diversity. It creates a lack of representation for women and other minorities in leadership roles or decision-making and executive positions.” The WICCG executive told the Stabroek Business that the organisation, “with its specific interest in in Women’s development, “stands to champion and advocate for a business environment that is conducive and leads to breaking the said glass ceiling.”
Questions have arisen previously about the imbalance in gender representation at the level of the country’s high-profile Business Support Organizations (BSOs) particularly the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI). The two BSOs have seemingly remained largely indifferent to this issue, notwithstanding the fact that it is widely believed that there are local businesswomen who are capable of playing leadership roles within the PSC and the GCCI.
When the Stabroek Business put that issue to the head of the WICCG, she responded that she did not believe that women are indifferent to seeking high office in the mainstream BSOs.
“We are cognizant of the fact that in the working world women do not only deal with a full-time job, they’re often also responsible for raising families. At times striking that ‘work-life’ balance can be challenging. Women tend to focus on their capacity building and development as a first step on the path to seeking out certain opportunities, especially in leadership.
“However, it is safe to say that if the opportunity presents itself women will take it, rather than falter. This is where organisations like ours are poised to advocate for the creation of better policies and opportunities for women while simultaneously calling for women to support, step up and forward, and overcome the habits that society has placed as barriers,” she said. Other women in the business sector have previously openly declared that the overwhelming predominance of males at the leadership levels of the PSC and the GCCI is a reflection of a thinly veiled chauvinistic undercurrent in the local private sector.
