Dear Editor,
I think it is fair to say that the main mission of women empowerment groups — like the 51% Coalition — to get women on what they consider to be an equal footing with us men is rather outdated these days. The actions of these groups are throwbacks to the time when women did not have the vote.
Our women have gained a lot since those days. We now have a woman prime minister, a woman director of public prosecutions, a woman chief justice, and a woman as head of one of the country's largest banks. I really think that these women's groups need to move with the times and change their focus to empowerment for all — not just women.
Take the crisis with the education of our males, for example. There is a very serious shift in the balance of male entrants into many of our tertiary institutions. The University of the West Indies has an imbalance ratio of 4 to 1, in favour of our women. It is very interesting that these women empowerment groups don't have much to say about this.
These female empowerment groups must understand that, while admission to our universities must be on merit, the absence of our males will not only hurt us men, but our women too. How can any society advance when our men are not educated? While I would not recommend that we put a quota for our universities to remedy this imbalance, what we need to do, with the active help of these women empowerment groups, is to find a way to get our males back in school.
This is where I think these women groups can be most effective. I think that one of the primary reasons our males are underperforming is on account of how they are being socialised. One of our main socialising agents is our entertainment industry, particularly our musicians.
If we could get our women empowerment groups to use the great power that they have to start putting pressure on some of these misfits in our entertainment industry promoting gangsterism and the lot then that could help in reversing how our males are being socialised today. Maybe they can facilitate those women who want go get into the industry. Maybe having more women DJs will help.
Our women's groups can also help with the number of male role models we have in the classroom. Teaching is still a predominantly woman's profession; even though there is now a conscious male presence. To help our boys with more male role models in the classroom, why don't these women groups do all they can to encourage more men to join the teaching profession?
Those were just a few of the ways these women groups can help move themselves into the modern era. All this talk of quotas and "women liberalisation" is very much out of touch with today's realities. We don't want our women to advance alone, we want them to advance with us men.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Women's lib movement needs new mission
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I think it is fair to say that the main mission of women empowerment groups — like the 51% Coalition — to get women on what they consider to be an equal footing with us men is rather outdated these days. The actions of these groups are throwbacks to the time when women did not have the vote.
Our women have gained a lot since those days. We now have a woman prime minister, a woman director of public prosecutions, a woman chief justice, and a woman as head of one of the country's largest banks. I really think that these women's groups need to move with the times and change their focus to empowerment for all — not just women.
Take the crisis with the education of our males, for example. There is a very serious shift in the balance of male entrants into many of our tertiary institutions. The University of the West Indies has an imbalance ratio of 4 to 1, in favour of our women. It is very interesting that these women empowerment groups don't have much to say about this.
These female empowerment groups must understand that, while admission to our universities must be on merit, the absence of our males will not only hurt us men, but our women too. How can any society advance when our men are not educated? While I would not recommend that we put a quota for our universities to remedy this imbalance, what we need to do, with the active help of these women empowerment groups, is to find a way to get our males back in school.
This is where I think these women groups can be most effective. I think that one of the primary reasons our males are underperforming is on account of how they are being socialised. One of our main socialising agents is our entertainment industry, particularly our musicians.
If we could get our women empowerment groups to use the great power that they have to start putting pressure on some of these misfits in our entertainment industry promoting gangsterism and the lot then that could help in reversing how our males are being socialised today. Maybe they can facilitate those women who want go get into the industry. Maybe having more women DJs will help.
Our women's groups can also help with the number of male role models we have in the classroom. Teaching is still a predominantly woman's profession; even though there is now a conscious male presence. To help our boys with more male role models in the classroom, why don't these women groups do all they can to encourage more men to join the teaching profession?
Those were just a few of the ways these women groups can help move themselves into the modern era. All this talk of quotas and "women liberalisation" is very much out of touch with today's realities. We don't want our women to advance alone, we want them to advance with us men.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Women's lib movement needs new mission
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