By Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 9th March 2023)-Minister of State responsible for Social Development and Gender Affairs Isalean Phillip has given some sisterhood advice geared towards calling on women to be a supportive system for each other.
On Wednesday 8th March 2023, in an address on the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD), she used the opportunity for such encouragement. The Gender Affairs Minister referred to an African proverb that says ‘If you want to go fast go alone but if you want to go far go together.’ According to her: “As women, we have an extraordinary responsibility to work together in order to achieve permanent and positive social and economic change.
The term empowerment does not merely reference us acquiring higher level jobs in the public and private sectors such as managerial and CEO positions or as permanent secretaries and government ministers. Empowerment as its core is also personal.
It calls for supportive sisterhoods that involve more meaningful levels of appreciation, connection and community involvement.” Phillip continued: “Similarly, a key aspect of women’s empowerment is the need for women to form supportive systems for each other simply because we are women and many of our struggles are identical. It calls for us as women to look beyond the trivial differences between ourselves and to see that we have more in common than we tend to admit.
It compels us to practice tolerance and mindfulness to be kinder to each other.” “Women empowerment urges us to understand that our words are the psychological keys that either unlock confidence and high esteem or lock us into different levels of insecurities,” she encouraged. Touching on this year’s IWD theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, she pointed out that it “brings to the core the many achievements of women in STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.” Phillip went on to say: “Globally, we are recognizing the advancement of women in the areas of transformative technology and digital education as integral areas for innovation and development.
Women’s contribution in all areas of socioeconomic development in St. Kitts and Nevis are pivotal. We must value and honour the pioneering women, the leading women in different fields including sports, education, business, agriculture and politics.” “As a result of these contributions, our society has steadily shifted culture and beliefs that women are only to be homebound and only concerned with domestic responsibilities or in caretaker roles.
Increasing involvement of women in other and all roles especially areas traditionally dominated by men is imperative if we are really to achieve sustainable development goal 5-Gender Equality and Equity.” Additionally, Phillip outlined that fortunately, in St. Kitts and in Nevis, our education system continues to incorporate innovative and technological changes in order to stay in sync with education in the digital age.“It is the commitment of this Labour administration to reinstate the laptop programme in public schools to equip students with devices so that they can stay abreast of learning with the digital age.
If we wish to reduce the digital divide between males, females and the older and young generations, it is important for us to provide the technological resources to support this thrust.” She informed that: “In our high schools and sixth form colleges, students are also afforded equal opportunities to pursue studies in STEAM and to date, there are actually more females studying in this area than there are males which is an indicator of our Federation’s progressive when it comes to women’s empowerment in this regard.” Front Page Image: Minister of State responsible for Social Development and GenderAffairs Isalean Phillip seen during the video presentation on Wednesday 8th March 2023, in an address to the nation on the occasion of International Women’s Day (credit: Facebook St. Kittsand Nevis Information Service-SKNIS)
