Business and Economic Commentary
Introduction
It took 136 years for the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry to elect a woman – Mrs. Kathy Smith – as its President. While that milestone is welcome, it underscores just how far Guyana still has to go in honouring its constitutional promise to women. While considerably younger, the more powerful Private Sector Commission does everything to sideline women as its leader. The promise of equality enshrined in Article 29 of the Constitution of Guyana, is a distant dream. This is what Article 29 states.
“Women’s participation in the various management and decision-making processes, whether private, public or state, shall be encouraged and facilitated by laws enacted for that purpose or otherwise.”
It does not need to be elevated to a fundamental right: there is an article against any form of discrimination. It is not aspirational: it is binding. And yet, over 40 years since an equivalent provision was included in the controversial Constitution in 1980, its implementation has moved incredibly slowly. This may have explained the choice of the topic by acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards in a lecture honouring Dame Desiree Bernard, the first woman judge, first woman Chancellor of the Judiciary, and the first woman on the Caribbean Court of Justice. It was an occasion for reflection – and lament.
