Every morning for some 60-odd years, she was up by 2 am; prepared food for her family and set off to plant or reap crops of sugar cane, and later vegetables, ground provisions and beans before the sun came up. On those mornings when she did not go to the land, she went to the wholesale and retail market in San Fernando or Princes Town to sell the produce, which she would also share with neighbours on request.
When she returned home, it was to prepare meals, clean the house and look after the demands of 13 children, two of whom she had inherited.
Poverty was not a condition she acknowledged. She instilled in her off-springs that intelligence was the greatest wealth, and that came with knowledge and education. No sacrifice was too high to ensure that her children had as much of that as could be accessed.
She had no parenting books to consult, because she never leant to read English, and what ought to be primary and secondary school days were occupied with looking after the domestic wants of relatives who took her in. Her mother had died when she was only and infant. Married at 15 with her first child at 18, parenting came from instincts and whatever information on child-rearing was passed on through oral lore, neighbours and friends. None of the sons, and eight daughters scattered across the hemisphere in variety of fields that now do acknowledges women’s work, some supporting families of their own, ever questioned her authority on parenting. All draw inspiration from her effervescent spirit, tirelessness, and refusal to be cowed by life’s seemingly daunting confrontations, including loss of her husband two decades ago.
At four scores and one this month, it is difficult to get her to break that routine. Still up in the wee hours of the morning, all but one of her children in homes of their own, her indomitable spirit refuses to allow her to concede that her health is failing and she is less capable of doing the things she has been doing all her life. Frailty of body is in constant conflict with strength of a mind that has been the catalyst of change for three generations.
Her contribution to home, family and community would never feature in either assessments of productivity or otherwise for national or other recognition. Recognitions, when they are given, are usually to those who have developed a public image, as executives, politicians, singers and actors, people in media, education, sports, science, research and others.
But many of these would claim that there was some catalyst for change that fuelled their success, and in many of those instances, these would be a woman. Though the lights of fame may never shine in their sunburnt faces, women like these have been the bedrock of our society, on whose shoulders stand the achievements of our businessmen and women, executives, sportsmen and women, politicians, superstars and other professionals. These are the women whom the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women hopes to bring to national attention with its call for 100 Women Agents of Change.
In support of the theme for Commonwealth Day and in recognition of the centenary of celebrations of International Women’s Day by the United Nations, the Network, in collaboration with the Trinidad and Tobago chapter of Friends of the Commonwealth are looking for 100 women among us who have been catalysts and who have inspired or are inspirations for change.
It is the Network’s belief that in remembering and acknowledging the real source of genius or of greatness, and the hallmarks of true achievement beyond the sizes of one’s incomes, cars, houses or the number of times featured in the media, those who hold high office are less likely to err. As we get organisations and communities contemplating and submitting nominees, we are hoping they will also engage in interrogating definitions of success and achievement, which will help us move closer to identifying the true centres of power and influence in our society.
In keeping with this year’s theme, Commonwealth’s Day, March 14, Women as Agents of Change celebrates women whose work has made a positive difference to the lives of others; who are successful in their own right; have achieved something for other women and whom can be proudly held up as role models. It will identify the transformative role women have in our society, and our world.
The exercise echoes the awareness tabled by the Network and other women’s organisations at the 2009 Commonwealth People’s Forum in Trinidad and Tobago “that gender equality is viewed not only as a goal in its own right, but also as a key factor in enhancing democracy and peace, eradicating poverty and violence against women, ensuring education for all, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality and combating HIV and AIDS.”
Nominee may come from any walk of life, social background or profession. A nominee could be a professional, charity or NGO worker, volunteer or family member. By submitting a nomination, persons must have the nominees’ consent to allow the text and any supporting documents and photographs to be published, publicised or otherwise promoted by the Network and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Winners must be willing to participate in publicity surrounding the competitions including the publishing of their details, photographs and video footage which will be made available in all media, including on the internet.
The 100 women selected will be featured in a publication on Women Agents of Change in Trinidad and Tobago, and from them will be drawn nominees for the Commonwealth Women Agents of Change who would form part of the delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth Australia in October 2011.
Further information and nomination forms, which include contact details of nominee and persons nominating (who must not be self are available on the Network’s website (http://www.networkngott.org; email: networkngo@mail.tt)
Completed forms must be submitted to the Network at the Professional Center, 11-13 Fitzblackman Drive South, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, by February 26, 2011.
Also, listen to Heartbeat Radio 103.FM for further details and join our Women Agents of Change of Trinidad and Tobago discussions on facebook.
Thru Novel Lenses! New Vision New Perspectives New Ideas New Directions For the New World! Futuring Sustainable Development in the Post Pandemic Planet From Pre School to Policy Making
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Culture Challenge pounding at the doors
"Cultural activist, Dr Kris Rampersad and others have suggested the ministry submit the draft policy for public comment" - Artist Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago
Artists Coalition wants national cultural policy soon
ACTT’s interim president, Rubadiri Victor, aired the groups’ views during a Thursday meeting of artists and cultural industry stakeholders, held at offices of the local Entertainment Company on Long Circular Road, St James.
He noted there was a draft policy which was now stymied by the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism’s need to create a multiculturalism language around it. However, he said they don’t seem to know how to do this.
In other countries, he pointed out, a separate agency looks after multiculturalism issues for the entire Government. Cultural activist, Dr Kris Rampersad and others have suggested the ministry submit the draft policy for public comment, all aimed at having a cultural policy by May 2011.
This issue, it was pointed out, was of paramount importance to ACTT members because a national cultural policy was a requirement for “hundreds of millions of dollars of UNESCO funding,” members said.
Victor spoke about the impact of poor communication between Government and cultural organisations on meeting the requirements to access UNESCO funding.
Victor reminded ACTT members of a 2006 meeting between cultural stakeholders, Government and UNESCO officials, which had fizzled out.
The application paperwork, which had to be completed by the State, was given a “failed” mark by the UN and sent back to TT for improvement. However, Victor claimed the document ended up languishing on the desk of someone who was on vacation.
After bringing the matter to the attention of Trade and Industry Minister, Stephen Cadiz, Victor expressed hope that this oversight would not re-occur in the future.
“Hopefully,” he declared, “they understand what is at stake, and it is clear that the cultural sector must be part of the negotiations. We almost lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars in funding,” Victor said.
For more visit www.krisrampersad.com
Sunday, January 30, 2011
…And now, a desperate call to housewives
In the sublime and euphoric end of year mode, when tout le monde try to pay as little attention as possible to the cares of the world and revel in optimism at the year to come and if given to reflection at all, to focus only on the good of the year gone, a cable provider slipped letters into the mailboxes of its unsuspecting customers.
These were not epistles of good tidings that would have brought great joy as befitted the season, so those who put off opening suspect mail until well into the New Year were spared having to absorb its cheerless content.
But alas, perhaps because of diminishing numbers of housewives, or diminishing numbers of those classified as such (readers will recall the trauma described in a previous column of trying to ascertain national statistics on housewives), there have not been even a whimper at this national injustice.
At least one wants to believe that may be the reason there has not yet been voices raised in widespread protest at the dismal content - if not the mode and manner of delivery - of the sad tidings that merely drummed up a two-decade long debate and suggested consumers lobby the Telecommunications Authority and Ministry to return two channels the provider was ‘ordered’ to discontinue.
Or it might be that in these days of email and instant messaging, few really pay store to nicely-typed, politely laid-out, double-spaced, somewhat apologetic, notification, signed by the chief executive of the provider with whom consumers enter a contract to provide their home entertainment if, and when, they have time to partake thereof.
Or it might be that in an era long past those of monopolistic corporate practices - as open market forces now offer consumers choice of a range of not just national television and cable service providers, but direct access to international ones as well - few thought it was worth the effort to elicit more than a muted steups while they went shopping for an alternative provider.
Whatever the reasons, in the glory days of the Housewives Association of Trinidad and Tobago (HATT), such a missive would never have slipped pass public scrutiny. The death just over a year ago of the head of HATT, which has been a vibrant force in carving space for recognition of women in Trinidad and Tobago and beyond seems to have rendered this organization somewhat silent.
Established in 1971 to generate public interest and awareness of the power of consumer action and to provide reliable consumer information, investigate consumer complaints, ensure consumer protection and educate consumers about their rights, HATT’s sporadic spurts of support of various causes over the last four decades have, at times, had global reverberations.
Time was when this organization was a household name. It not only championed the merits of breastfeeding, for instance, or high consumer prices; or the invisibility of housewives in national accounting and planning; it admonished various public and private sector bodies including, Ministries, the Bureau of Standards, consumer affairs division, public utility services and advertisers to pull up their socks and tie their shoelaces.
The work of this illustrious organization has made its way into various impressive treatise – including the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, as a significant entity that has impacted on “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and The Law: The Female Body As A Redemptive Tool Against Trinidad's Gender-Biased Laws”.
It was seen as an enduring voice to any cause. In 2005, one year after HATT resurfaced with a new burst of energy following a period of dormancy, the haulers’ association invoked the menacing visage of HATT to their defense if manufacturers did not pay for wasting haulers time by keeping them waiting as much as six hours before loading haul trucks at the port. Manufacturers had threatened to increase the price of goods following the haulers establishing a ‘delay fee’. The haulers rebutted:
“If prices are increased, the consumers should say something, whether it is the Housewives Association or somebody else. Let the port know the delays cost the country,” the haulers admonished.
So now, it would be good if HATT, as it has done time and again over water and electricity rates, lets the people know that cuts in aspects of any contracted household services, including those provided by a cable television company, without a related reduction in bill rates or compensatory services is unacceptable business practice. It certainly directly affects the unsubstantiated numbers of housewives in T&T who (though also statistically unsubstantiated), are perceived to be among the most voracious consumers of cable content, Desperate Housewives and the like.
HATT would find some valid statistics to back up its lobby – that each household on average contributes around 6,000 dollars yearly to their cable service provider. With an island-limited population, and increasing competition, those are customers cable providers cannot afford to lose.
And while, at it, HATT could also find adequate cause for pulling up the socks and tying the shoelaces of other delinquent telecommunications providers of deficient phone and internet services – but to that at another time.
More attention to local and educational channels, and (hint, hint) the now available Oprah Winfrey Network can fill the service deficit arising from discontinuation of the already paid-for movie channels, until of course, HATT gets its own channel, as its mother organization, the Network of NGO’s, has been looking into for some time.
These were not epistles of good tidings that would have brought great joy as befitted the season, so those who put off opening suspect mail until well into the New Year were spared having to absorb its cheerless content.
But alas, perhaps because of diminishing numbers of housewives, or diminishing numbers of those classified as such (readers will recall the trauma described in a previous column of trying to ascertain national statistics on housewives), there have not been even a whimper at this national injustice.
At least one wants to believe that may be the reason there has not yet been voices raised in widespread protest at the dismal content - if not the mode and manner of delivery - of the sad tidings that merely drummed up a two-decade long debate and suggested consumers lobby the Telecommunications Authority and Ministry to return two channels the provider was ‘ordered’ to discontinue.
Or it might be that in these days of email and instant messaging, few really pay store to nicely-typed, politely laid-out, double-spaced, somewhat apologetic, notification, signed by the chief executive of the provider with whom consumers enter a contract to provide their home entertainment if, and when, they have time to partake thereof.
Or it might be that in an era long past those of monopolistic corporate practices - as open market forces now offer consumers choice of a range of not just national television and cable service providers, but direct access to international ones as well - few thought it was worth the effort to elicit more than a muted steups while they went shopping for an alternative provider.
Whatever the reasons, in the glory days of the Housewives Association of Trinidad and Tobago (HATT), such a missive would never have slipped pass public scrutiny. The death just over a year ago of the head of HATT, which has been a vibrant force in carving space for recognition of women in Trinidad and Tobago and beyond seems to have rendered this organization somewhat silent.
Established in 1971 to generate public interest and awareness of the power of consumer action and to provide reliable consumer information, investigate consumer complaints, ensure consumer protection and educate consumers about their rights, HATT’s sporadic spurts of support of various causes over the last four decades have, at times, had global reverberations.
Time was when this organization was a household name. It not only championed the merits of breastfeeding, for instance, or high consumer prices; or the invisibility of housewives in national accounting and planning; it admonished various public and private sector bodies including, Ministries, the Bureau of Standards, consumer affairs division, public utility services and advertisers to pull up their socks and tie their shoelaces.
The work of this illustrious organization has made its way into various impressive treatise – including the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, as a significant entity that has impacted on “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and The Law: The Female Body As A Redemptive Tool Against Trinidad's Gender-Biased Laws”.
It was seen as an enduring voice to any cause. In 2005, one year after HATT resurfaced with a new burst of energy following a period of dormancy, the haulers’ association invoked the menacing visage of HATT to their defense if manufacturers did not pay for wasting haulers time by keeping them waiting as much as six hours before loading haul trucks at the port. Manufacturers had threatened to increase the price of goods following the haulers establishing a ‘delay fee’. The haulers rebutted:
“If prices are increased, the consumers should say something, whether it is the Housewives Association or somebody else. Let the port know the delays cost the country,” the haulers admonished.
So now, it would be good if HATT, as it has done time and again over water and electricity rates, lets the people know that cuts in aspects of any contracted household services, including those provided by a cable television company, without a related reduction in bill rates or compensatory services is unacceptable business practice. It certainly directly affects the unsubstantiated numbers of housewives in T&T who (though also statistically unsubstantiated), are perceived to be among the most voracious consumers of cable content, Desperate Housewives and the like.
HATT would find some valid statistics to back up its lobby – that each household on average contributes around 6,000 dollars yearly to their cable service provider. With an island-limited population, and increasing competition, those are customers cable providers cannot afford to lose.
And while, at it, HATT could also find adequate cause for pulling up the socks and tying the shoelaces of other delinquent telecommunications providers of deficient phone and internet services – but to that at another time.
More attention to local and educational channels, and (hint, hint) the now available Oprah Winfrey Network can fill the service deficit arising from discontinuation of the already paid-for movie channels, until of course, HATT gets its own channel, as its mother organization, the Network of NGO’s, has been looking into for some time.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Housewives and disparate Census statistics
To help inform what was to be this week’ topic in this space for this week, I casually asked an officer of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) how many housewives are there in Trinidad and Tobago. Blame the answer for this digression. “You would have to look under female-headed households,” the CSO officer said, when I asked where I may find such data in the CSO database. The response puzzled me so I am using this space to mull it over, given that CSO is currently conducting its once-in-a-decade national census. The original topic was supposed to be on our entertainment services, but not unlike calypsonian Stalin’s ‘Dorothy’, it will have to wait.
Puzzle 1. Clearly, ‘female-headed households’ - which data suggests can be anywhere between ten to 42 percent for the Caribbean - is not synonymous with ‘housewives’. Females who head households are breadwinners for their homes. In this home-based activity of writing this column – (clothes are in the washer and lunch is in on the stove too!) - consulting Google beats finding a dictionary, but both modes would define housewife as “a married woman who is not employed outside the home”.
It implies that as breadwinners, females who head households are employed in an activity, other than as a housewife - whether as breadwinners in an activity that keeps them in or takes them away from home. If in addition to their in- or out- of home breadwinning capacity, they are the home’s chief cook and bottlewasher, managing and doing house work, they may also be called housewives, but (according to the official definitions) only if they are married.
Modern gender relations now define “husbands who choose to stay at home instead of working” as househusbands. I have not been able to ascertain whether there is a term for unmarried or single women, or unmarried single men, who are not employed outside the home.
That definition though not clear, implies that a married woman who is not employed outside the home is, by default, employed in the home. The women’s movement has lobbied that housewifery is an occupation with equivalent economic/dollar value, in addition to esoterical, social value etc. Although they recognise in real terms the ‘dollar value’ of love, nurture, care might be immeasurable they contend that house/domestic work as an activity that contributes to the economy and family and national income.
The informal practice of an allowance to housewives by some breadwinning husbands’ may be translated as the equivalent of a salary (though often much under the value of what may be considered a fair month’s wages). This is becoming somewhat systemized mainly in the developed world and has extended to benefits (as paternity leave), perhaps because many workplaces accept female workers. Women can now, generally, choose or not choose, to be housewives. Growing numbers of househusbands, including those who choose to stay at home, as well as those who cannot find work, have benefitted from this practice of an allowance.
I have said all that to say that CSO’s statistics for female-headed households is the same statistics for housewives, and Trinidad and Tobago statistics for housewives, let alone desperate ones, it seems, do not exist.
Puzzle 2: If one were to move out of CSO’s gender categorisation, into its economic activity/occupation category, the dilemma is similar. If I had persisted questioning, I am sure the statistician would have referred me in my search for the numbers of housewives in Trinidad and Tobago to statistics for domestic workers. But domestic worker is also not synonymous with housewife. Google’s magi churns out that a domestic worker is employed within the employer’s household. To state the almost obvious, domestics are not necessarily the wives in the home; and the perhaps less obvious, are not necessarily female.
In this way those of us attempting to factor in women’s contributions to society are hindered by lack of what is called ‘gender disaggregated data’ (information that define differences in the way males and females impact on and are affected by various activities/decisions whether at micro (household/community) or macro (national/international) levels. That is why these has been moves to increasingly use tools of gender sensitive analysis that capture stereotyping which can result in skewed statistics, skewed analysis and skewed representation and analysis of social/economic and other realities. (So when one talks of female-headed households, for instance, one does not project stereotypical beliefs that that is the same as housewives; or that domestics are only females.)
CSO’s webpage boasts of a new national socio-economic database facility called cTTInfo. This it claims “aims to improve capacity to manage and access reliable gender disaggregated data to facilitate evidence-based planning and inform the allocation of budgetary resources.” It links to a page with a logo of the Ministry of Planning, Housing and Development, the former title of what now is the Ministry of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs. Apart from the misnomer, I have not yet been able to access gender-disaggregated data from this tool.
For reasons similar to those detailed above, the Network of NGOs recommended, and it was accepted, that the Gender ministerial portfolio be placed in the ministry responsible for planning, and hence CSO activities. As CSO begins the census that will inform analyses, planning, decision, policy-making, and governance directions towards 2020 and beyond, its data-gathering and analyse may have to be retailored to be more relevant to changing evolving social realities and needs. Gender disaggregation and gender-sensitive analyses are part of that process.
Certainly, such awareness would have spared readers this, and instead offered perhaps more pleasurable reading about home entertainment in the style of the TV soap, Desperate Housewives – surely much more befitting the upcoming season of bacchanalia. But stay tuned.
Puzzle 1. Clearly, ‘female-headed households’ - which data suggests can be anywhere between ten to 42 percent for the Caribbean - is not synonymous with ‘housewives’. Females who head households are breadwinners for their homes. In this home-based activity of writing this column – (clothes are in the washer and lunch is in on the stove too!) - consulting Google beats finding a dictionary, but both modes would define housewife as “a married woman who is not employed outside the home”.
It implies that as breadwinners, females who head households are employed in an activity, other than as a housewife - whether as breadwinners in an activity that keeps them in or takes them away from home. If in addition to their in- or out- of home breadwinning capacity, they are the home’s chief cook and bottlewasher, managing and doing house work, they may also be called housewives, but (according to the official definitions) only if they are married.
Modern gender relations now define “husbands who choose to stay at home instead of working” as househusbands. I have not been able to ascertain whether there is a term for unmarried or single women, or unmarried single men, who are not employed outside the home.
That definition though not clear, implies that a married woman who is not employed outside the home is, by default, employed in the home. The women’s movement has lobbied that housewifery is an occupation with equivalent economic/dollar value, in addition to esoterical, social value etc. Although they recognise in real terms the ‘dollar value’ of love, nurture, care might be immeasurable they contend that house/domestic work as an activity that contributes to the economy and family and national income.
The informal practice of an allowance to housewives by some breadwinning husbands’ may be translated as the equivalent of a salary (though often much under the value of what may be considered a fair month’s wages). This is becoming somewhat systemized mainly in the developed world and has extended to benefits (as paternity leave), perhaps because many workplaces accept female workers. Women can now, generally, choose or not choose, to be housewives. Growing numbers of househusbands, including those who choose to stay at home, as well as those who cannot find work, have benefitted from this practice of an allowance.
I have said all that to say that CSO’s statistics for female-headed households is the same statistics for housewives, and Trinidad and Tobago statistics for housewives, let alone desperate ones, it seems, do not exist.
Puzzle 2: If one were to move out of CSO’s gender categorisation, into its economic activity/occupation category, the dilemma is similar. If I had persisted questioning, I am sure the statistician would have referred me in my search for the numbers of housewives in Trinidad and Tobago to statistics for domestic workers. But domestic worker is also not synonymous with housewife. Google’s magi churns out that a domestic worker is employed within the employer’s household. To state the almost obvious, domestics are not necessarily the wives in the home; and the perhaps less obvious, are not necessarily female.
In this way those of us attempting to factor in women’s contributions to society are hindered by lack of what is called ‘gender disaggregated data’ (information that define differences in the way males and females impact on and are affected by various activities/decisions whether at micro (household/community) or macro (national/international) levels. That is why these has been moves to increasingly use tools of gender sensitive analysis that capture stereotyping which can result in skewed statistics, skewed analysis and skewed representation and analysis of social/economic and other realities. (So when one talks of female-headed households, for instance, one does not project stereotypical beliefs that that is the same as housewives; or that domestics are only females.)
CSO’s webpage boasts of a new national socio-economic database facility called cTTInfo. This it claims “aims to improve capacity to manage and access reliable gender disaggregated data to facilitate evidence-based planning and inform the allocation of budgetary resources.” It links to a page with a logo of the Ministry of Planning, Housing and Development, the former title of what now is the Ministry of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs. Apart from the misnomer, I have not yet been able to access gender-disaggregated data from this tool.
For reasons similar to those detailed above, the Network of NGOs recommended, and it was accepted, that the Gender ministerial portfolio be placed in the ministry responsible for planning, and hence CSO activities. As CSO begins the census that will inform analyses, planning, decision, policy-making, and governance directions towards 2020 and beyond, its data-gathering and analyse may have to be retailored to be more relevant to changing evolving social realities and needs. Gender disaggregation and gender-sensitive analyses are part of that process.
Certainly, such awareness would have spared readers this, and instead offered perhaps more pleasurable reading about home entertainment in the style of the TV soap, Desperate Housewives – surely much more befitting the upcoming season of bacchanalia. But stay tuned.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Wind chimes for political change
This week marks one year of the assumption of political leadership of the United National Congress by Kamla Persad-Bissessar. It spiraled a chain of activities that saw her becoming Trinidad and Tobago’s first female Prime Minister – a process I mapped in the book Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010) which was launched the week before the elections. The book boldly pointed to a potential victory by Persad-Bissessar when all other analyses hedged, only stretching their necks out to, at best, suggest a dead-heat election race with no clear winner. Through the Political Glass Ceiling, which has since made its way into key libraries of the world, clearly mapped a process of underlying and oft-ignored social, cultural and political currents of the last 60 years locally and internationally that paved the way and made almost inevitable Persad-Bissessar’s political victory in the May 2010 election.
One of the chapters in Through the Political Glass Ceiling is titled To Be Woman and Leader. For long they were considered mutually exclusive concepts. Women who become leaders are often asked how they balance both, in denial of recognition that women are born leaders, who birth leaders, and shape the hearts and minds of future leaders.
National winds of change found a responsive global chime. The wave of national popularity since May rippled across the globe and saw her voted in internationally among Time Magazine’s top ten female world leaders and among the Independent Newspaper 16 women taking over the world. She strutted down a Glamour Magazine’s runway as one of 18 women leaders of the world who have remained focused on the issues of women’s empowerment. She refocused UN commitments at the World Summit and lectured to Harvard on Leadership and Cooperation among others.
Women as agents of change will be theme of several activities in the year 2011, as nationally and internationally, the world will reflect on how a more balanced positioning can advance equity and fairness to its disadvantaged and dispossessed. Some of the experiences of Persad-Bissessar, detailed in Through the Political Glass Ceiling, would themselves be analysed at various national and international forums and the obvious question is sure to surface - how has she transformed the environment in which she functions? How has she functioned as an agent of change? How has her leadership impacted the UNC, Trinidad and Tobago? The world?
One of the key failures of women leaders have been in trying to enforce-fit into the male – and so far clearly deficient culture and environment (for how could any Government claim success when there is such vast discrepancies in wealth with more than 80 percent of the world’s population living on less than USD 10 per day and more than 40 percent less than USD 2 per day?) Lack of confidence and loss of focus on that simple fact has felled many-a–female leader. It seems easier to fall into patterns of failure, rather than trying to transform one’s sphere into one in which all, including women and children can function on an equal footing – one recalls attempts by former British PM, Margaret Thatcher at deepening her voice so her tones blend into the male-dominated political sphere. Persad-Bissessar will be well-poised to keep the confidence and the focus.
In the frenzy of the first year of governance, there might not have been much time to step back and reflect on how governance might be responding to the call for change but as the year winds down and a new one begins, it is naturally given to reflect on the successes of 2010 and think of repositioning for the challenges of 2011. The symbolic impact seen in the accolades heaped on her leadership in 2010 will be seeking substance in 2011. The platform of people-centred government represented by the People’s Partnership came at a time in 2010 when the world was looking for a new model of governance, as Through the Political Glass Ceiling posits. 2011 will be the acid test of whether a woman, a leader, an agent of change, the centre of this new model, will hold.
One of the chapters in Through the Political Glass Ceiling is titled To Be Woman and Leader. For long they were considered mutually exclusive concepts. Women who become leaders are often asked how they balance both, in denial of recognition that women are born leaders, who birth leaders, and shape the hearts and minds of future leaders.
National winds of change found a responsive global chime. The wave of national popularity since May rippled across the globe and saw her voted in internationally among Time Magazine’s top ten female world leaders and among the Independent Newspaper 16 women taking over the world. She strutted down a Glamour Magazine’s runway as one of 18 women leaders of the world who have remained focused on the issues of women’s empowerment. She refocused UN commitments at the World Summit and lectured to Harvard on Leadership and Cooperation among others.
Women as agents of change will be theme of several activities in the year 2011, as nationally and internationally, the world will reflect on how a more balanced positioning can advance equity and fairness to its disadvantaged and dispossessed. Some of the experiences of Persad-Bissessar, detailed in Through the Political Glass Ceiling, would themselves be analysed at various national and international forums and the obvious question is sure to surface - how has she transformed the environment in which she functions? How has she functioned as an agent of change? How has her leadership impacted the UNC, Trinidad and Tobago? The world?
One of the key failures of women leaders have been in trying to enforce-fit into the male – and so far clearly deficient culture and environment (for how could any Government claim success when there is such vast discrepancies in wealth with more than 80 percent of the world’s population living on less than USD 10 per day and more than 40 percent less than USD 2 per day?) Lack of confidence and loss of focus on that simple fact has felled many-a–female leader. It seems easier to fall into patterns of failure, rather than trying to transform one’s sphere into one in which all, including women and children can function on an equal footing – one recalls attempts by former British PM, Margaret Thatcher at deepening her voice so her tones blend into the male-dominated political sphere. Persad-Bissessar will be well-poised to keep the confidence and the focus.
In the frenzy of the first year of governance, there might not have been much time to step back and reflect on how governance might be responding to the call for change but as the year winds down and a new one begins, it is naturally given to reflect on the successes of 2010 and think of repositioning for the challenges of 2011. The symbolic impact seen in the accolades heaped on her leadership in 2010 will be seeking substance in 2011. The platform of people-centred government represented by the People’s Partnership came at a time in 2010 when the world was looking for a new model of governance, as Through the Political Glass Ceiling posits. 2011 will be the acid test of whether a woman, a leader, an agent of change, the centre of this new model, will hold.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Women and Tech Toys
At the height of the shopping frenzy that characterizes yuletide and year end, we try to allow ourselves to be entertained by what advertisers seem to think are their clever insights into gender roles – old mops, mopping on being replaced by new tech savvy cleaners; speedier, hi-tech chore-achieving equipment to entice lazy men out of sofas to take up their share of household responsibilities; men inveigling their children’s support in one scheme or the other to outwit their nagging moms.
In their oblivious reinforcement of gender stereotypes, the advertisers seem to be missing the obvious – that many of the new hi-powered equipment meant to make household work easier (and to encourage men to participate) are better meeting the needs of the expanding numbers of single, female headed households. Some avid sociologist might want to take up this observation as further evidence of male marginalization - the new catchphrase in ongoing gender-based analyses. Meanwhile, clearly unknown to the advertisers, women are relinquishing the nagging, and are taking up newly invented high-powered easy-to-use equipment, and just doing it themselves.
A friend of mine was engaged by a UK company some years ago to do market research on how women use technology. The growing purchasing power of women’s pocket books were making females more attractive subjects of scientific research and development as corporations did not want to miss out on the opportunity to bite into some of those hard-earned bucks. Cell phones and computers, for instance, were beginning to be turned out in pinks and reds and pastels – to cater for the possible interest by women in these gadgets, of course, until someone thought that women’s interest in these tech toys might go beyond skin deep – and they might actually be interested in the applications and functions of these new age devices. This research project has since evolved in the UK, into a television series called Lady Geek that ranges through the bewildering maze of new apps, particularly on smart phones, to help women understand which may be best suited to their needs.
I have spent the last several years searching the shelves of technology for a basic household, uhh accessory. (Not quite an appliance, nor a tool, I have to call it a household cleaning accessory). Older generations would call it a mop. I have explored local and international household department stores. I have seen a world of mops, steamers and vacuum cleaners capable of handling various kinds of floors, hard or carpeted, but have not found one that can suit my needs, and that, very simply is a mop – one with scrubbing and vacuum functions that, dries as it wet-cleans, can cover 10,000 square feet of ground space in one cleaning without leaving its bristles or frayed fibres or microfibers in its wake because they cannot live up to the size of the task.
Sometimes, frustrated in my quest, I may drift into tech stores, hoping against hope that some genius might have invented my dream mop as this year’s gadget of choice. To defray the inevitable disappointment, I may allow myself to be lured into the fascinating world of the newest smartphones, computers and their apps that have now been transported from our palms to the galaxy. Now there I can find almost everything I need from such a device, having evolved from wanting a phone that can be tucked into my bra where my mother tucked her wallet (let’s face it, where do you put it when you’re decked for an evening out!) to a device that serves most of my general on-the-go phoning, computing, surfing, reading, music, photographic and video needs with all the required applications – and that can fit, if not into my bra, certainly in a neat purse without the danger of neck and back damage, slim-line, and of a colour of choice. So for those who were about to ask, if I can’t have a mop for Christmas, certainly a galaxy fits the tech tab.
In their oblivious reinforcement of gender stereotypes, the advertisers seem to be missing the obvious – that many of the new hi-powered equipment meant to make household work easier (and to encourage men to participate) are better meeting the needs of the expanding numbers of single, female headed households. Some avid sociologist might want to take up this observation as further evidence of male marginalization - the new catchphrase in ongoing gender-based analyses. Meanwhile, clearly unknown to the advertisers, women are relinquishing the nagging, and are taking up newly invented high-powered easy-to-use equipment, and just doing it themselves.
A friend of mine was engaged by a UK company some years ago to do market research on how women use technology. The growing purchasing power of women’s pocket books were making females more attractive subjects of scientific research and development as corporations did not want to miss out on the opportunity to bite into some of those hard-earned bucks. Cell phones and computers, for instance, were beginning to be turned out in pinks and reds and pastels – to cater for the possible interest by women in these gadgets, of course, until someone thought that women’s interest in these tech toys might go beyond skin deep – and they might actually be interested in the applications and functions of these new age devices. This research project has since evolved in the UK, into a television series called Lady Geek that ranges through the bewildering maze of new apps, particularly on smart phones, to help women understand which may be best suited to their needs.
I have spent the last several years searching the shelves of technology for a basic household, uhh accessory. (Not quite an appliance, nor a tool, I have to call it a household cleaning accessory). Older generations would call it a mop. I have explored local and international household department stores. I have seen a world of mops, steamers and vacuum cleaners capable of handling various kinds of floors, hard or carpeted, but have not found one that can suit my needs, and that, very simply is a mop – one with scrubbing and vacuum functions that, dries as it wet-cleans, can cover 10,000 square feet of ground space in one cleaning without leaving its bristles or frayed fibres or microfibers in its wake because they cannot live up to the size of the task.
Sometimes, frustrated in my quest, I may drift into tech stores, hoping against hope that some genius might have invented my dream mop as this year’s gadget of choice. To defray the inevitable disappointment, I may allow myself to be lured into the fascinating world of the newest smartphones, computers and their apps that have now been transported from our palms to the galaxy. Now there I can find almost everything I need from such a device, having evolved from wanting a phone that can be tucked into my bra where my mother tucked her wallet (let’s face it, where do you put it when you’re decked for an evening out!) to a device that serves most of my general on-the-go phoning, computing, surfing, reading, music, photographic and video needs with all the required applications – and that can fit, if not into my bra, certainly in a neat purse without the danger of neck and back damage, slim-line, and of a colour of choice. So for those who were about to ask, if I can’t have a mop for Christmas, certainly a galaxy fits the tech tab.
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