DO men look past each other's faults more easily than women do? Yes! At least that's the view of several women from the Embracing Ethics and Gender in Governance round table held recently at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. The goal of the round table was to bring together scores of women from politics, business and academia from all walks of life to discuss the inclusion of more women in leadership. It was the first in an upcoming series of round tables being planned for female empowerment and action.

Women admitted that they need to be more forgiving and supportive of each other. Moreover, women in leadership should do more to "bring our sisters into the networks that matter", according to head of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Sandra Glasgow.

Glasgow, one of the round table panellists, also pointed out that this is how the guys do it -- "they recommend each other for board positions".

This move to increase women's participation in leadership is especially significant since research shows that people in general trust women in leadership more. Trust, according to Dr Sheila Brown from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs, is one of the key ingredients of leadership and more women should therefore be included on boards and in government.

"Women in leadership is not only the right thing but the bright thing," she reasoned.

Lisa Hanna, member of parliament for Southeast St Ann, said the political process has a lot to gain by including more women in leadership.

She said 90 per cent of her workers are women. She noted that the umbilical cord of dependency that women have on men needs to be cut and that women need to make the transformation into leadership.

In terms of her own journey as a female leader, she admitted that she is the oddity in politics.

She says that given her experience and training in media and communications and success in beauty pageants, society would not have expected her to get involved in politics. As Hanna puts it, people would have expected her to be doing something more "pretty".

The Embracing Ethics and Gender in Governance round table was organised by the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre in collaboration with the Association of Women's Organisations in Jamaica, the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, UWI and the Governance Committee of the PSOJ.

For more information or feedback send your emails to communications@wrocjamaica.org.

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