Respect for women will help to break down the walls of gender inequality, says Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley.
In her International Women’s Day message today, Mottley said she joined in the worldwide recognition of women, Caribbean women in particular, who have been practising a duty of care for those around them.
That, she said, included the challenges of raising families with little support and at the same time extending what little there was to others.
“I would like to remind you that the issue of gender inequality is not a woman’s problem but it is an all-society problem, not only in its origins and impacts but indeed, my friends, in its remedy.
“Respect is the greatest tool that we can employ as we go about our day-to-day lives. It is in our duty of care to one another that will see the walls of inequality torn down,” the Prime Minister stated.
She said Barbadians were no strangers to the abilities of women who have influenced schools, homes, places of worship, and the private and public sectors.
“Barbadian women and Caribbean women, too, throughout our history, have been modelled and they practise a duty of care to one another that this country now triumphs as one of the platforms from which our future development must rest. For we’ve put that duty of care in our Charter of Barbados . . . caring, empathy, selflessness, all in spite of the many systemic and social barriers they had to face that made their life difficult purely on the basis of what, just because they are women, just because they are girls, just because of their gender?” Mottley asked.
She admonished women not to lease out “space in their heads” and aspire for heights only they can determine.
The journey, she reminded, was a long one with much to accomplish, but it could be achieved working hand in hand and bit by bit. (AC)