Their guava sauce came out of one such programme in St Thomas. WROC began working in St Thomas in 2001, after one of the many tropical systems that batter the island annually. They worked with the communities of Johnson Mountain, Spring Bank, Somerset, Trinity Villa and Mount Vernon. Since 2008, with funding from the European Union and Christian Aid, the WROC sought a new sustainable source of income for ex-banana farmers. The answer, guava.

Marketing Officer Alexis McDavid and WROC board member Kathleen Goldson-Clarke told Food that guava is a very resilient crop found in abundance in the parish. The season for the fruit is usually three months, and there are two seasons each year.

This is an excerpt from an article published in the Jamaica Gleaner on Thursday September 1, 2011 - read the entire article.

“We want to see more women in leadership, more women sitting on boards and commissions. And we know that the research shows that women more than men practice transformational leadership and that is why increasing the number of qualified women in leadership is not only a matter of ensuring gender equality but also integral to securing a better future for all Jamaicans,” asserts Executive Director of WROC Dorothy Whyte. Furthermore the research shows that “more women in leadership lead to greater profitability for companies and businesses so policymakers and business leaders really need to recognize that having more women in leadership affects the bottom dollar.” Whyte echoes views posited in the Economist (April 2006) that “women are now the most powerful engine of global growth”…and that “making better use of women’s skills is not just a matter of fairness. Plenty of studies suggest that it is good for business too.”

The upcoming convention, which will see women coming from various sections and sectors of Jamaica, hopes to advance this perspective and achieve a sense of solidarity among women.  “This would be signalled by broad support for a position paper with specific ideas on how to advance women’s leadership.  This paper will be formally submitted to the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition” says convention planner Samora Bain.  Crucially, the position paper calls for a system of quotas to be implemented regarding gender participation / distribution. Specifically, WROC is recommending that no board should have less than 40% of either sex. The upcoming convention aims to build consensus around this recommendation as well as “affirm and support women (and men) who exemplify transformational leadership,” notes Bain.

The call for a quota system has already received support from several individuals and groups including Dr. Dalea Bean from the Institute of Gender Studies, UWI. “It’s a commendable way of getting change… because women have been discriminated against. If we look at our parliament, boards and so on, it is still a very small number of women in these areas, so finding and training women and increasing the quota is obviously a move in the right direction,” opines Dr. Bean.

In addition to building consensus on the position paper, a database of approximately 100 women trained and equipped to sit on Boards and Commissions will be formally launched at the convention with anticipated endorsements from the private sector and civil society. “We want to rule out the whole question of women’s availability, so we are going to be presenting a database of women who are qualified, willing and available to serve,” stresses gender expert and WROC board member Linnette Vassell.  The database is made up of women from diverse backgrounds. “Finance, health, emergency services, education, agriculture, business, the church, community development, tourism, telecommunications and law are only a few of the sectors from which these women emerge,” explains Vassell.

In the end the organizers are hoping that in addition to advancing the call for transformational leadership in Jamaica, that women who attend the convention will leave “refreshed, energized, emboldened, empowered and with a sense of togetherness” says Bain. The convention is an important milestone in WROC’s slew of activities geared at advancing women’s rights and observing international women’s month.

For more information send your emails communications@wrocjamaica.org

SOMERSET, St Thomas: THE COLD night wind coming off the river was giving Marsha Graham a hard time as she struggled to keep warm, but she was determined to stay the course. Finally, some time after 10, the tired Somerset resident was able to leave the pigpen, secure in the knowledge that the 10 new-born piglets and the sow were okay. Though exhausted, Graham was happy and grateful to the friend who had stayed to help. The new additions meant that with the nine weanlings, three breeding sows, a boar and shoat (young pig that has just been weaned) her foray into pig rearing has begun to pay off - slowly but surely, she explained.

For Graham, who also raises broiler chickens in batches of 100, the pigs are a long-term investment, with the aim of building the herd to the point where she will be able to have pigs on offer for sale throughout the year.

"It takes a lot of work but, in the long run, it can pay off, but you have to spend a lot of time," she told The Gleaner. Everyday work involves feeding the animals, keeping the pens clean and ensuring that they stay healthy. The rising cost of feed is cause for concern.

Financial rewards

As she recalled the discomfort of the biting breeze, despite the many layers of clothing she was wearing on the night, the piglets were born, the 30-odd year-old lamented that so many young people are unwilling to do this kind of work, but want to enjoy the financial rewards.

"A lot of them, if you ask them to come and help you, they tell you them can't bother with that, but still them want a money from you," Graham remarked. Even though she did not originally realise how much work was involved in pig rearing, she is now a happy pig farmer and welcomes the opportunity it can afford her to realise economic independence. For that, she is grateful for the European Union/Christian AID's Strengthening Capacities for Sustainable Livelihoods project under which she received two sows.

Graham recalled that it was on June 20, 2009 that she received the start-up animals and still enjoys a good relationship with one of the pigs she has named 'Sandy' Graham.

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

This article was originally published in the Jamaica Gleaner on Saturday February 26, 2011.

Or is it a matter of representation; for every 6 men that made a valiant contribution to freedom and Jamaica’s attainment of political sovereignty there is only one woman? Hardly likely. Jamaican women have been playing leading roles in society for decades, but their efforts often go unrecognized. Besides Nanny, there are a host of other women who have impacted Jamaican history in significant ways.

“Cubah, Queen of Kingston, Congo Sally, these women led enslaved people in rebellions, even after slavery,” cites Dr. Dalea Bean, Assistant Lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona. Continuing she points to “Amy Ashwood, Amy Jacque Garvey, Henrietta Vinton Davis, these woman were part of the pan-African and Garvey movement and would have been staunch leaders and organizers as well.” In more recent history “Una Marson and Amy Bailey who would have been critical to the women’s liberal club and these clubs gave women a platform to discuss issues relevant to them. Not to forget Mary Morris Knibb who is actually the first woman to be elected to public office in 1939,” outlines the gender expert. 

Furthermore, these women helped to broaden the scope of governance by legitimatizing certain social issues and finding solutions. “Issues that are pertinent to what would have been considered the private sphere would not have been given pride of place in public policy. These women brought these things to the fore: birth control issues, family planning, sanitation, children and child rearing and the laws that govern these things,” says Dr. Bean. “This is why policymakers ought to ensure that women’s representation at every level of decision-making including the boardroom is optimized to ensure that a wider and more relevant view of social and economic policy development can be realized,” asserts Chairperson of the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC) Lorna Lee. “It is time that a structure is established where a set number of women occupy positions of leadership, waiting for it to ‘naturally’ happen is unwise and society in turn misses out on the benefits of a real gender partnership that could bring about true transformation,” adds WROC’s Executive Director Dorothy Whyte.

For more information on this story send your emails to communications@wrocjamaica.org

Indeed his sentiment encapsulates much of the endemic traditional perspective of a woman’s innate skills being mainly seductive or sexual and a ‘woman’s place’ being subjugated to men’s.  

His view confirms that while there have been some cultural shifts which suggest an acceptance of women progressing in their careers and education, the notion that the man is the head is still strongly held - this in spite of an abundance of international and local research showing that organizations with more women at the helm perform substantially better. If the research findings are accepted and “a policy is developed to systematically encourage and support more women to participate in leadership, Jamaica could make tremendous strides in her economic and social development,” notes gender specialist and WROC board member Linnette Vassell. “Proactive measures to bring more women into the boardroom in all sectors and levels, from those in our schools to the corporate level, are critical if Jamaica is to see the transformation in governance it so desperately needs,” stresses Vassell.

However Business Communication Specialist and Observer Columnist Yvonne Grinam Nicholson disagrees with the idea of a structural framework or quota system that stipulates the distribution of each gender. While she believes that more women should be involved in leadership she says “ these things should evolve naturally because what will happen if it becomes legislated is that they will just pick people to go in the position who might not necessarily be qualified just to make sure that they are within the law,” opines Grinam Nicholson during Bloom, a radio programmed aired on RJR recently. Instead of turning to a quota system she says “women need to retrain themselves to perform in these positions and to make themselves more eligible for the opportunities when they arise.”

Vassell contends however that “instituting quotas is one of the chief strategies that several countries have employed in order to increase the participation of women in leadership and benefit from the unique skills that women bring to the table.” Agreeing that women need to prepare themselves, she also emphasizes that “it is not lack of competence or preparation for leadership that is the main obstacles to women’s higher level of participation, but a host of intertwining issues.” Continuing she asserts that “it is not beyond our competence to ensure that qualified, positive women of integrity are selected to serve, furthermore high standards should equally apply to men”, she added.

It is against this background that a position paper on measures to advance women’s leadership is being developed for discussion and presentation to decision-makers. This is being developed by WROC as one of the key outputs of the Strengthening Women’s Leadership in Jamaica (SWLJ) project being funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund and supported by the Canadian International Development Agency CIDA. Following consultations with close to 200 women across the island and the training of an additional 100 plus women to assume leadership positions on Boards and Commissions, the position paper or policy brief will advance “the overall agenda of women’s empowerment and encourage policymakers to take a gendered approach to governance including the use of a quota system as a special temporary measure,” Vassell outlines.

Social Development Consultant Dr. Deborah Duperly Pinks agrees that allowing and encouraging more women to participate in leadership is integral to any credible development agenda. Duperly Pinks stresses that “you cannot have a policy that is inimical to women being debated and decided upon mainly by men… so it’s important to have all the voices as part of the debate and this is the importance of why women need to be involved at that (policy development) level.” Continuing Duperly Pinks reasons that “if you are on the ‘inside’ you have a better chance of bringing your perspective into the decision making process.”
WROC is hoping to impact that decision making process at the level of boards and commissions through the SWLJ project. In addition to the policy brief , a database of more than 100 professional and grassroots women trained and equipped to assume positions on boards and commissions at all levels is being developed and will be completed by March 2011. It is hoped that the draft policy brief will not only encourage and create pathways for more women to participate in leadership but also help “to foster socio-cultural transformation regarding the understanding and acceptance of the roles men and women are expected to perform so that both sexes can take their ‘rightful’ and equal place in our nation’s decision-making process,” says Vassell.

For more information send your emails to communications@wrocjamaica.org