Many events for International Women’s Day

Gabrielle Hosein
Gabrielle Hosein

INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is observed each year on March 8, but this year there seem to be more events than ever planned for TT. The theme for 2018 is #PressforProgress.

In TT, organisations such as the InterClub of TT and Women Everywhere have a week of activities in observance of the day. But other events are also being held, some of which, according to Dr Gabrielle Hosein, head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, address issues of policy and the history of women’s organising, among others.

While she was unable to quantify, Hosein said, “I think it is important to note there are many, many events around International Women’s Day this year, and many different types addressing the question of policy, the history of women organising, the question of economic empowerment, rural women’s development, issues of sexuality and violence against women, ones that allow for women to network, that allow them to march in public and visibly and collectively state what their issues are, as well as ones that are committed to trying to educate the public about things like the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.”

This, she added, was a sign of the need for TT to pay attention to women’s issues and lives and the multiple areas that are relevant to women’s rights.

Asked about what could have led to the many events and if there is a correlation with global movements such as #Metoo, Hosein said it was hard to say, as there could be many different factors such as a generational change or even the strength of the UN theme.

She believes “decades of work that have happened have mainstreamed International Women’s Day in a way that makes (organisations), whether they are companies or state agencies or NGOs, recognise that this is a day to affirm not only women’s empowerment but also the continued struggle that remains around very key issues.”

She said one of the reasons the society is seeing this and will continue too is because of feminism’s impact on the Caribbean. People, she added, are supportive of a lot of the basic goals of feminism, for women to live safe, empowered and well-educated lives and to be able to fulfil their dreams.

For Hosein, “The call ‘press for progress and press for gender justice’ is an important one.”

While she said people might think women have achieved all they want, none of the data suggests that that is the case.

“I would argue that where women are only 30 per cent of our representatives in the House of Parliament, that this is a sign of continued inequality; where women are a minority of decision-makers in business leadership at the highest levels, that this is a sign of the glass ceiling; where women continue to feel unsafe getting in a taxi or going to a job interview, that this is a sign of a society that does not protect their right to move around as free citizens, safely; where women are experiencing higher levels of child sexual abuse and incest, it speaks to an increased vulnerability that women experience because of their femininity and sexuality.”

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