There are now equal opportunities available to both men and women in Barbados.
Gone are the days when men obtained better pay and jobs than women did.
This was the consensus of panellists in a Men’s Educational Support Association discussion entitled Are the Odds Really against the Women or the Men in Today’s Society?_on Wednesday night at the St Michael School.
Seated at the head table were Canon Errington Massiah, educator Michelle Cave, president of the National Organisation of Women, Avelyn Christie, former Minister of Justice Keith Simmons and former chairman of the Child Care Board,_David ‘‘Joey’’ Harper, who was the moderator.
Christie said despite progress there was still a disconnect between laws and what is practised in relation to equality.
“There is still dissonance between legislation and practice. But laws cannot regulate behaviour. What we need to do is teach our society to see the change that we want to see,” she said.
Canon Massiah, a retired Anglican priest, recalled that when he was a teacher at St George_Boys’ School, which had a roll of 300 students and_50 women teachers, females were paid a few dollars less for doing the same job. His salary was $88 a month while women received $82 – $83.
“Since then the playing field is a bit levelled; each person, male and female has an equal opportunity but . . . it depends on how you are prepared to use the playing field – you must have an object in life,” he said.
Massiah said men could not do typing nor domestic science (now called food and nutrition) without being laughed at.
“They would refer to us as sissies, but it is equal now in our secondary schools because both boys and girls can do food and nutrition. Some of the best chefs are male. And nobody is referring to any man as a woman or a sissy; people gravitate to that,” he added.
Simmons, however, lamented that some schools did not physically cater to boys, citing the schools with minimal open space for play.
He also said going to university did not always mean people received an education.
“I have come to the conclusion that going to university only gives you a certificate; it does not help you to operate in the society. Because if you don’t know anything about the society, the piece of paper you get is useless and that is the problem,” he said.
Cave, however, said, more support should be given to young persons and wondered whether boys would be adequately equipped to build a society from the ground up if they were given the same educational tools.
“We educated them, but are the boys more skilled than the girls? Are the girls more skilled than the boys? Who can we say has the_21st century skills to create a society that they can comfortably exist and grow in? The skills that girls and boys get to succeed are what we need to concentrate on,” Cave said._(TG)