Men must be allies

JULIEN NEAVES

TRINIDAD-BORN Canadian MP Dr Hedy Fry has said gender equality cannot be achieved without men. She was speaking yesterday at the Celebrating Solidarity: Coffee and Conversation International Women’s Day 2018 hosted by the women’s-group umbrella association InterClub and the High Commission of Canada, and held at the residence of High Commissioner of Canada Carla Hogan Rufelds at The Renaissance at Shorelands, Glencoe.

The event also saw the launch of the campaign #CaribbeanMenCan which featured local men of influence providing statements on video expressing solidarity with women’s empowerment. Fry said she was happy to see men standing and speaking out. “We need them. We cannot achieve gender equality without men.”

Fry recalled she grew up in San Fernando and it was her father’s encouragement that led to her being where she is now. On women’s empowerment, Fry said nothing can happen without political will at the very top, and noted that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ensured 50 per cent of his parliament and cabinet were women and the 2018 federal budget was a “gender budget,” with every department doing gender analysis.

She stressed that women account for 50 per cent of the population and if the whole nation is not using all its resources, then the country will fall behind in terms of economic success and competitiveness. “(We need) women and men as partners.”

Fry said some believed women’s empowerment would harm family values, but research had shown that in homes with gender violence, where the wife is beaten, disrespected and treated like chattel, “the boys would grow up to do the same thing and girls would have low self-esteem.”

“Strong families do not beat each other,” she declared.

Fry said education was important for women’s empowerment and this is why Canada had chosen this issue as a core part of its foreign aid.

In her welcome remarks Rufelds noted that Fry is the longest-serving female member of parliament in Canada, and has been MP for Vancouver Centre continuously since 1993.

On the campaign, she said the Canadians wanted to have a special focus on building and celebrating solidarity with men and Caribbean men in particular. She explained it was about building solidarity in terms of women’s empowerment and equality and gender empowerment and equality.

“We need to build that solidarity across society and involve as many people as we can – women, men, leaders, decision-makers, youth, moms, dads, neighbours, colleagues – the list goes on.”

Director of Institute of Gender and Development Studies Dr Gabrielle Hosein said the Caribbean needed to find ways for men to express solidarity with the struggle to advance women’s rights and gender justice. She said there are men with progressive views and they should speak out on gender equality, which would inspire other men to do so. “We really need men to be allies.”