After kick starting its 84th anniversary celebrations with a customary church service on September 11, the People’s National Party held the second event in the series of events commemorating this significant milestone in the party’s history.

The Orange Table Talk, which was hosted by the People’s National Party Women’s Movement, was held on September 13 and broadcasted live on Facebook and YouTube and saw hundreds of viewers tuning in online to listen and voice their opinions.

The Orange Table Talk, entitled Elevate Her: Powering the Dream of an Equal Society for Men and Women, featured special guest speakers Oshane Grant, co-chair of the PNP Gender Commission; DonoMar Waite, educator; Georgia Crawford, entrepreneur; Elaine Duncan, household worker; and Tamecia Williams, entrepreneur.

Patricia Duncan Sutherland, president of the PNP Women’s Movement, engaged Party President Mark Golding, Party Chairman Angela Brown Burke and guest speakers in discussions which confronted issues affecting men and women in society.

The panelists discussed, among other things, domestic violence in the household, gender biases which exist in their respective fields and ways in which these biases can be addressed by the Government.  

Duncan Sutherland, who is also deputy opposition spokesperson on gender, culture and social transformation, highlighted the need for conversations such as this, in the context of the gender imbalance that currently exists in Jamaica.

“While 80 per cent of university graduates are women and 60 per cent of middle management are women, in the spaces of decision making where representation matters most, women, despite being educated and qualified, are almost invisible,” said Duncan Sutherland.  

WOMEN REMAIN UNDERREPRESENTED

She added that, 78 per cent of men are active in the workforce, in comparison to 67 per cent of women and 12 per cent of women are unemployed in comparison to seven per cent of men.

“Women remain underrepresented in employment and overrepresented in unemployment. Despite equal pay for equal work, women get paid approximately 20 per cent less than men for the same roles,” said Duncan Sutherland.

Golding emphasised the need for effective mechanisms by which persons can assert their rights.

“We have had equal pay for equal work as a legal right since the mid-seventies but like many other areas, the question of enforcement of those rights and access to those rights is what really matters. Providing effective mechanisms by which persons can assert their rights and have the full benefit of those rights is often more important than the easy part of it which is creating those rights in law,” said Golding,

In exploring some solutions to the issue of gender bias in Jamaica, Duncan Sutherland expressed that social intervention is needed to reverse some of the norms which the society has embraced. In an appeal to the Government to invest more in social programmes, the Opposition Spokesperson said: “We need an army of social workers, not an army of soldiers.”

The Opposition has always championed the cause of equal rights for women and remains committed to driving progressive policies such as equal pay for women as well as paid maternity leave which were implemented under the PNP’s administration.