Task force created for women’s equal political participation
Don’t be frightened, conference tells men
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
May 31, 2003
The 50/50 Caribbean conference for increasing women’s political participation has established a task force to look at the idea of equal participation at all levels of governance.
In addition the conference adopted seven strategies as priorities for the implementation of this concept.
At a press conference held at the end of the conference at the Cara Inn, yesterday, former senator and co-ordinator of the National Organisation of Women in Barbados, Jessica Odle said that the task force or steering committee held its first meeting yesterday. It would be networking over the internet in the coming weeks and would meet in Antigua in July.
She felt that the 100 delegates from 14 Caribbean countries had drawn strength from the concept of equal representation in decision-making. The conference recognised a number of weak areas that needed to be strengthened, Odle said, adding that delegates were concerned that as individual states they did not know what each other was doing. To this end there was a general feeling that through Caricom there was need for increased efforts at what used to be called the Caricom Women’s Desk to serve also as a repository of information regarding the advances of women in individual countries.
Co-ordinator of an NGO for the advancement of women in Trinidad and Tobago, Hazel Brown said that the idea of 50/50 political participation was not meant to scare men but get the balance right in relation to the various levels of government.
She said the conference had recognised there were five levels of government: household, community, local, national and regional. It was at these levels that “we want to get the 50/50 balance right,” she said adding that the conference also recognised the power of networking and collaboration.
The seven strategies adopted as priorities included training of women and candidates in campaign management. Brown noted that in Trinidad and Tobago, her organisation had produced a campaign management workbook that told of the strategies for the training of women in policy formulation so that they could know the process by which they could effectively participate.
This includes the training of women and support groups for advocacy and lobbying, so women would know how to achieve the objective of change when they become involved in the decision-making process as parliamentarians and councillors.
The second strategy looks at strengthening institutional mechanisms for women as well as gender issues within Caricom. This includes the level of representation of women at Caricom conferences and meetings.
Another strategy is a `sistering’ or mentoring programme in which women lend support, train and mentor other women, particularly the young women on how to go about participating and achieving through the political process.
Networking, collaborating and caucusing among women across party lines was another strategy.
Brown noted that this strategy had been used successfully in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and St Lucia particularly in voting together on issues which cut across party lines such as reproductive rights, women’s health and HIV/AIDS.
The other strategies were public and voting awareness with the aim of making younger women aware of their rights through the ballot boxes; documentation and recording personal stories such as was done in T&T on the 74 women who have been in that country’s parliament since 1946; and lastly the sharing of information on constitutional reform.
Brown said that in terms of constitutional reform, the Guyana experience, which provided an opportunity for a greater percentage of women in parliament and on the voter list, was a good example. She noted that within the region laws were in place that prohibited women from contesting parliamentary seats and from becoming pregnant while serving in parliament. High deposit fees also made it almost impossible for women to run as independent candidates. Some countries also require that women, and not men, resign from the public service to enter the political process.
