Women’s leadership needed now more than ever, says UN secretary general
UNITED Nations Secretary General António Guterres joined a host of other officials congratulating Barbados on achieving republic status last week, adding his voice to note the achievement from the gender perspective.
“I congratulate Barbados on becoming the first country in the Caribbean with a female president and female prime minister, after today’s transition to a republic,” Guterres announced on his social media Tuesday.
“Women leaders have led inclusive responses to the #COVID19 and climate crises. Their leadership is needed more than ever.”
For her part, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been pushing for women to take their position in Caribbean development and has urged them to ensure they leave their mark in a modern day Caribbean.
Addressing the Women in Leadership 2021 Virtual Conference hosted by The University of the West Indies (UWI) Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business this summer, Mottley said female leadership in the Caribbean has been a rarity.
Mottley, the first woman to head a government in Barbados, said given the chance, she would have given up modern technology and conveniences in exchange for being an “influential adult during the period of birth of the modern Caribbean”.
Mottley said that despite more than half the population of the region being women, only five of the 15 Caribbean Community countries have elected women leaders, and only four of the 13 UWI campus principals and six registrars of the Caribbean Examination Council have been women.
Apart from Mottley, the other women who have headed governments in the Caribbean have been the late Dr Janet Jagan in Guyana, Dominica’s Dame Eugenia Charles, Jamaica’s Portia Simpson Miller and Kamla Persad Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago.
Mottley said it is not that women did not make contributions, but they were not among those whose iconic contributions are celebrated now in the region, adding unfortunately, this trend is still reflected in the present-day Caribbean landscape.
Barbados last Tuesday became a republic and swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, 55 years after the Caribbean island gained independence from Britain. The ceremony formally severed ties with Queen Elizabeth II and ended nearly 400 years of British rule.
