Mrs. Holness Urges Female Parliamentarians To Promote Greater Gender Cohesion

Member of Parliament for East Rural St. Andrew, the Most Hon. Juliet Holness, is calling on female Parliamentarians to use their platforms to promote greater gender cohesion and partnerships.

Addressing an International Women’s Day virtual panel discussion on Monday (March 8), Mrs. Holness, who is also Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, said the move will create “true partnership” towards development.

“As sisters, together, we need to use every opportunity to protect, promote and to empower our girls and educate and resocialise our boys, so that Jamaica can benefit from the full participation of having women actively involved in the political process and in business,” she also urged.

The International Women’s Day forum, organised by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), was held under the theme ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’.

Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Donna Scott Mottley, who also participated in the session, said that women in the political space “can use their influence to ensure, not only gender equality for women but equality for all”.

State Minister in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and Member of Parliament for St. Andrew West Rural, Hon. Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, for her part, said that the achievement of “true equality” must be backed by actions and policies.

“It is important that we are not only a part of history but use this as a stepping stone to create history. We have the unique opportunity to influence change in society that will see our women given equal opportunity and treatment,” she noted.

Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Opal Palmer Adisa, used the occasion to laud the activists who are working with women and girls to overcome trauma.

She argued that leadership must be concerned with nurturing and community engagements.

International Women’s Day, which is observed annually on March 8, celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.