Women empowering women
Our worst fear is that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light and not our darkness, which most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be gorgeous, talented and fabulous.
Actually, who are we not to be?
You are a child of God
Your playing small does not sere the world
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so the other people won’t feel insecure around you
We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us…
(Marianne Wilson)
Call it co-incidence, but Day 2, of the Caribbean Business Women’s Conference hosted by the Small Business Association of Jamaica saw three powerful woman using this same quote (above), as they sought to empower their sisters to help them function in this great big men’s club, the Jamaican Business World.
The theme of the conference was: Women, Changing the Face of the Global Economy. The conference and product expo was held at the Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus last week.
The exposition proved interesting and exciting to the overflowing conference hall of business women who were positively empowered by their successful sisters. Donna Duncan, Managing Director of Jamaica Money Market Brokers gave food for thought, in her presentation: How to Climb the Steps to Success in Today’s Economy.
She walked the women through a four-step programme, where they were asked to seriously consider a number of questions such as: “Who am I?”, “What does success look like for me?”, “What is stopping me from achieving this?” Her presentation was well received and left many in quite introspection.
One of the most well received speakers was JLP Member of Parliament for North Eastern St Ann, Shahine Robinson, who is also a business woman and a farmer. Mrs Robinson was asked to speak on the general topic of women in business but sought to speak on the empowerment of women in business.
She said that although statistics show that women are outperforming and outclassing men in so many different areas, she believed that men still had the power.
“Women head two of the four political parties, but neither parties have a track record of a seat in parliament. The two primary parties are run by men,” she said. “The situation is even more grim in the business world,” she continued as of the 45 companies listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, none are managed by women. The situation is not unique to Jamaica she said, as less then 2% of fortune 500 companies in the United States, are run by women.
Mrs Robinson said that while it took some time to come up with a list of female movers and shakers in Jamaica, there are several whose names should be repeated over and over to encourage other women to follow in their footsteps.
She encouraged women, especially those near the corridors of power to lobby for their place at the table citing that at recent meetings of powerful business leaders with the prime minister, women were conspicuously absent. This is unacceptable she said as women need to speak up loudly and act passionately to ensure that they are able to participate and make a meaningful contribution to the economic and political development of our nation.
Dr Tina Hylton-Kong, Medical Officer (Health) Kingston and St Andrew Public Health Department spoke on Sexually Transmitted Infectons (STD’s) at home and in the corporate arena. In a presentation that proved informative, she pointed out that women were more vulnerable than men when it came to STD’s, not only culturally, but economically and biologically.
Women she said, are sometimes asymtomatic (show no signs of an STD), and the consequences of contracting one can be very serious as it may lead to infertility and other complication such as Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, ectopic pregnancy, and the increased risk of contracting HIV.
Becky Stockhousen, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Jamaica spoke to the gathering on the do’s and don’ts when considering franchise operations with multi-national organisations, while Merline Bardowell of the Scientific Research Council spoke on small business positioning for the knowledge-based economy.
Journalist and counseling psychologist, Rosemarie Chung had participants hanging on to her every word as she spoke on stress management – a topic which seemingly affected many of the participants who unlike their male counterparts are forced to play multiple roles.
Some women she said come home from a long day’s work, are forced to cook, clean up, help the kids with home-work, etc. They complete the chores at 2:00 am and are up again by 5:00 am in order to send the kids off to school then go to work themselves. She taught the women to recognise stress, how to slow down as well as a simple destressing exercise to get them through the day.
Other speakers were Beverly Anderson-Manley, gender expert; Jan Lopez, programme director; Addiction Alert Organisation, Cosmetologist Guadia Chevannes, and Gynaecologist Wynante Patterson among others.
