Former Director of the??Bureau of Women’s Affairs, Marva Alleyne (second from left, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘, NULL, NULL, 0); former Member of Parliament for St. Joseph, Maizie Barker-Welch; and??Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Care,??Sonja Welch, enjoying the??International Women’s Day??celebrations. (Image: A. Miller/BGIS)
Barbadian women interested in entering elective politics have been urged not to let the naysayers put them down.
This advice has come from former Member of Parliament for St. Joseph, Maizie Barker-Welch, who also warned them not to engage in personal attacks, but discuss issues.
While addressing the International Women’s Day Rally and Concert last evening in Independence Square, Mrs. Barker-Welch, who entered politics at the age of 58, said she was "sad" in 1986 when she was the only woman elected to serve in the House of Assembly.
She expressed the view that many men were not comfortable with women in decision-making positions.?? Mrs. Barker Welch added that women had not progressed as far as they should have and urged more members of society to lend their support to them.
Member of the National Advisory Council on Gender, Danny Babb, told the gathering that the youth were misguided by society in the areas of gender and gender roles. "Furthermore, society’s working definition of gender roles is based on behaviours and rules portrayed by adults daily. So, when we have women in the workplace still not able to become a manager because the chief executive officer believes that a man should run the place, well it is society that has done that.
"We as a society continue to accept this belief that women should be at the back, they should be seen and not heard … like children. Women should be in the forefront and I look forward to the day when we can have a female prime minister," Mr. Babb stated.