#BTSpeakingOut – Has the pendulum swung too far?

Three years ago, an article was published in the Barbados TODAY e-paper which noted among other things that “Decades ago there were glass ceilings all over the place and women were second rate citizens with few opportunities to showcase their talents and compete with men.”

How things have changed in Barbados, if nowhere else! We now have females as: Governor General; Prime Minister; Ministers; Leaders of the three major political parties; Doctors; Lawyers (more than 80 per cent of those admitted to the “Bar” in Barbados over the last five years have been female); Director of Public Prosecution; Magistrates; Judges; and Engineers.

More than 80 per cent of our university graduates over the last 20 years have been female” and poses the question: Has the Pendulum swung too far?

The question is now more relevant than ever as nothing has been done or is being done to modulate the situation as the pendulum continues to swing.

That article received only lukewarm support from a few males and females while attracting a misleading even if self-righteous response from a female which was published in the Barbados TODAY e-paper on Thursday, October 13th, 2018, titled “Let us do away with the fallacy of female domination”.

Three years later that “fallacy” has become an obvious reality as increasing numbers in our community, both male and female, seem to be finally recognising that males have been sidelined while also being blamed for the “sociological challenges affecting Barbadian men”.

 One recent complainant could not find a single male in a large government office nor was there any in the general office of a large insurance company. In the meantime, the “sidelined” boy children of many grieving Barbadian mothers have been cut down by bullets and no one seems to link the two far less do anything about it.

The growing rumblings that I am hearing in our community is reminiscent of Soufriere a few weeks ago and tangible actions are needed to relieve the growing discontent. The fact is that our bright young men are being forced to leave their/ our country because our system has failed them.

– Men are bad, men are bad, men are bad, men are bad…It is all men’s fault! We need to reverse this unjust brainwashing on gender that has taken place in our country;

– Our gender inequity issues are not going away until they are adequately addressed;

– Intelligence Quotient (IQ) ratings show that our boys are just as smart as the girls. Our boys and young men have been disadvantaged by our education system and this is not being addressed;

– Future conferences on gender equity in Barbados and elsewhere need to involve as many males as females to have any credibility; and

– It will not be credible for the current Government to wait until its first term is over and, not having taken any tangible action to address the situation, then “promises” such action in the next term.

Barbadian males have the motive and the opportunity to send an irrefutable message at the next general election.