Archive for September, 2013

Gender discrimination

The most galling part of Minister Tara Rivers’ defence of her trip to South Africa and criticism of the media coverage surrounding it was the claim that the negative press was because she is a woman. As the minister responsible for gender affairs, she should be ashamed of herself. CNS, she should note, is run by women, and while we are are thrilled to see a woman in Cabinet, Rivers must understand that she is not an affirmative action minister.

Rivers is right that globally the media, like many other institutions, does discriminate against women, especially ones in leadership positions. It is not uncommon in the mainstream European and American media for stories about powerful women to be described in very different terms to men. News report about a man will not generally refer to his Gucci snakeskin loafers or make comments about how he wore his hair for a photo call, but where women are involved, appearance often becomes the focus of the story rather than any pressing political or socio-economic issue.

Family ties and children, sex lives and emotions are much more often the subject of news stories regarding female leaders than their male counterparts, and women everywhere have a much tougher time reaching their career goals than men because along the way they will almost certianly have to deal with both active and passive sexism. However, in order to challenge real chauvinism, we, as women, must be wary of those crying wolf.

In Rivers’ case, there was nothing in any of the reports in any media that singled her out because she was a woman; there were no references to her outfits or to her personal life. The reports had nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with her decision as a politician.

Shortly after taking up her cabinet position, Rivers was at the centre of a major courtroom drama that distracted her from her ministerial duties for several weeks. Almost as soon as that was behind her, she unwisely made a decision to go to a conference halfway around the world. At a time of growing unemployment and hardship for local workers and, even more importantly, at the start of the school year, Rivers, as minister responsible for these two huge areas, had work to do at home.

There is no doubt that the conference in South Africa offered her the opportunity for development, learning, comparing notes and discussing important common issues with her counterparts in other countries, as many conferences, workshops and seminars do. But before the minister looks at other jurisdictions for inspiration, she must begin the process of understanding her own.

The minister has not yet had enough the time to talk in depth to her staff in all the various departments she is now responsible for. She has not had the time to discuss the issues within Cayman’s schools with parents, teachers, principals, specialist teachers and education experts within her own staff. She cannot yet have a full understanding of the gulf between the unemployed and the employers, or had time to discuss initiatives with policy advisers, administrative staff and management at each level so she has a full understanding of what works and what doesn’t, what has been tried and what hasn’t (and why), which of the wonderful new ideas she discovers in other jurisdictions are, in fact, already happening.

Learning about civics lessons taught elsewhere is less important than making sure all Year 5 students in the Cayman Islands have a teacher. And if they don’t, it is her ultimate responsibility to find out why.

The cost of the trip, which we are still waiting to see, may not be terribly significant but when the jobless and the low paid are hurting, when business owners are struggling to pay their inflated fees and all of us pay through the nose for basic groceries, it is infuriating to see ministers fly round the world for what look like jollies, whatever the subject matter.

Regardless of whether Rivers should have gone or not, the public relations surrounding this trip was shambolic. There was no mention of it in any official statement, despite numerous opportunities for her to inform the public via official channels, and press releases about her whereabouts appeared to be untruthful — something that is bound to be picked up by the media. The excuse that it was on her Facebook page is absurd. Social media is one way to disseminate information, and journalists do use it as one source of gathering news, but it’s not enough to post information that should be disseminated to the wider public on Facebook and hope the media finds it.

If Rivers had been paying attention over the last four years, she would have known that when politicians go on expensive trips, the media and the public will want to know why and how much it costs. And if she thinks that male politicians do not receive such scrutiny, she should have a little sit down with UDP Leader McKeeva Bush. Her new boss, Alden McLaughlin, the country’s third premier, was fully cognizant of public skepticism about ministers' overseas trips, so much so that one of his first actions in office was to implement a travel policy to control spending and curb unnecessary travel.

The public has every right to question where their tax dollars go and CNS will continue to provide a platform for the people of the Cayman Islands to do so, regardless of the sex, creed, colour and political or religious persuasion of the public servant in question.

Rivers' actions and decisions (and expensive official trips) will be scrutinized in exactly the same way as those of her male colleagues. To do otherwise would be actual discrimination.

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