Bureau of Women's Affairs moves to OPM

By NADINE WILSON All Woman writer wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, February 06, 2012

FOR the ninth time since 1975, the Bureau of Women's Affairs (BWA) has found itself shifted to a different ministry, but some believe the move from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture under the last administration to its current location under the Office of the Prime Minister might not be such a bad thing.

"To me that gives it prominence and it could be a signal that she [the prime minister] realises the importance of gender issues. So we will have to watch to see how the issues are dealt with, now that they are under the Office of the Prime Minister," said regional director for the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, Professor Verene Shepherd.

But perhaps a better move, she believes, would have been to make gender affairs a ministry in itself, so that more focus could be placed on tackling the gender inequities in the nation.

"I would like to see a dedicated minister of gender affairs — not one among the basket of responsibilities and portfolios of a particular member of the government, be it prime minister or otherwise. I have never understood why it has never been done," she said.

"It is always like an add-on. Of course there have been some improvements and changes — we have a national policy for gender equality, but is it going to be implemented?"she asked.

Executive Director of the Bureau, Faith Webster, said the issue of the ministry under which gender affairs is placed is usually a topical one at regional and even international seminars and conventions.

"Discussions have always come up regarding which is the best ministry for the women's bureau to be positioned and you hear various responses. Some feel that it should be located within the office of the prime minister because they say they figure that if it is there, then it is at the highest level and you will get a certain level of attention there," she said.

"One of the things that I note is that they tend to place the women's bureau in what they would call the 'soft' ministries. Some countries have like ministries of family affairs or they would say like ministry of social mobilisation or ministry of women and children and this is not just only in Commonwealth countries alone but right across the world," she pointed out.

"I have seen too where in other countries they would place it under the ministry of labour and social security, because you are thinking about social protection and care of children and welfare and those sorts of things which are associated with women," she said.

Professor Shepherd believes that while we have made some strides in addressing gender issues, there is still a long way to go. Having a dedicated minister she believes for gender affairs could speed up this process.

"We haven't reached anywhere in terms of achieving some gender balance so you need a dedicated minister of gender affairs to also watch these issues and be an activist in the cause of gender equity and balance in our country," she said before asserting, "We need to educate our children about gender issues, it needs to be in the schools, we need to educate our politicians even about being sensitive to gender issues."

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Bureau of Women's Affairs moves to OPM