Sharon Robinson: battling for the sexes

Monday, March 01, 2010

RESEARCH Co-ordinator at the Bureau of Women's Affairs Sharon Robinson is passionate about gender equality. A trained teacher with over 18 years of experience in the classroom, Robinson has committed herself to greater collaboration between men and women for the overall development of Jamaica. Her sterling performance at the Bureau of Women's Affairs, fighting the good fight for equality of men and women, brought her to the attention of the US Embassy and she has been chosen to represent Jamaica in an international US State Department project entitled, 'Women and Justice' to take place from March 1 to 19 in Washington DC, Reno, Nevada, Louisville, Kentucky, and Ithaca and New York City in New York State. This professionally enriching programme coincides with the US observation of March as Women's History Month and International Women's Day on March 8.

Robinson's passion for gender equality began with the realisation, while in her first year at the University of the West Indies, that females outnumbered males in the majority of her classes. This problematic issue begged the questions: Where are the men and why are more women pursuing further studies? What will the gender composition look like in the years to come? What implications will the under-education of Jamaican males have for the Jamaican family? Her concern led to a 2001 published exploratory study, Fathers and Fathering in Jamaica: Cultural Convention or Responsible Behaviour?

Through her research, Robinson found that, among other issues, Jamaican men have a preoccupation with the biological claim to fatherhood and that biological fatherhood alone is seen as a validation of manhood. Yet there is uncertainty among males regarding the expected 'father' role beyond conception. Furthermore, males expressed a need for greater communication and understanding between the sexes and among men in general.

The Bureau of Women's Affairs, the government's national machinery for women and the institutional response to the global women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, supports the view that empowering women does not mean tipping the scale to get an advantage over men, rather that an equal and just society will develop once a synergy is created that respects both men and women as co-contributors to society.

Following progressive social research and thinking, Robinson and her colleagues now present a more holistic sociological approach that fully recognises and integrates the role of the male in society as partner and essential actor in the struggle for equal human, social, and economic rights. Robinson believes that in the next 10 years Jamaica will see marked social improvements as a result of national policies on gender and sexual harassment, HIV and AIDS, youth and their integration in development plans, decreasing the vulnerability of young girls and women, and creating a space to encourage gender equality in educational achievement.

The Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports, which oversees the Bureau of Women's Affairs, has sought to partner with a number of international agencies to strategically enhance Jamaica's response to the condition of women in society as a core function, even as the agency expands its mandate to incorporate the masculine role in a developing society. To this end, Sharon Robinson and the bureau gladly accepted the US Embassy's invitation to represent Jamaica in its International Visitor Leadership Programme. Robinson expects to primarily assess developing initiatives and programmes in the US that help increase women's political participation and economic opportunities, and support as well women's access to education and health care. A second important goal will be to explore the issues of power and control, the balanced practice of which are crucial for fair and just relationships between the sexes. Lastly, she expects to discuss issues such as universal human rights and the importance of mutual respect between men and women as a crucial element in facilitating a society's goal-setting and achievements.

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Sharon Robinson: battling for the sexes