Retiring principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus, Professor Eudine Barriteau, says Government must accept that the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts have hit women harder.
Professor Barriteau, who retires from office on July 1 after a stellar academic career and advocacy profile for gender equality, said the situation in Barbados mirrored that of the region, where economies have been devasted by the collapse of the tourism industry.
The UWI Pro Vice-Chancellor, who recently engaged friends, colleagues, former and present students during an online event honouring her contribution to the UWI, said most of jobs lost in tourism and related industries, have hurt women particularly.
“What the COVID-19 pandemic has shown up is how it hits women disproportionately . . . . When you talk about a female-headed household, it is not just a woman living there by herself; that may characterise some middle- class households and some professional households, but you still have at the low-income level . . . single women, who [are] the main providers and young dependent children. And so, there are great disruptions and great burdens that are cast on women,” she remarked.
According to the leading Caribbean academic, the recent volcanic eruptions at La Soufriere in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which also dumped heavy ashfall in Barbados and stalled business activity, added increased pressure on women.
“So, it is the COVID-19 pandemic and the volcanic ash in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The pandemic and the disruption to lives and livelihoods . . . [have] exacerbated the existing inequalities,” she noted.
According to Professor Barriteau: “In almost all Caribbean societies, we have had a rise in domestic violence. . . . and we know that COVID-19 has made life unbearable for women.”
Professor Barriteau, who was awarded Barbados’ highest national honour in 2019, the Order of the Freedom of Barbados, is also one of the key advisors to Government on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), scheduled for later this year in Barbados.
As she responded to questions from the audience, Professor Barriteau remarked: “The pandemic enables us to see all the inequalities . . .
I should say the differential impact on women and men because it also impacts men too . . . but if you have two dependent children and you have lost your job . . . then there are three people who you have to feed however you can.”
“We need our governments to understand and to accept the [need] to cater for that differential impact and the work that women do in the care economy – underwriting informal production.
“We often think of trafficking in women as only in relation to sex, but there is trafficking in terms of agricultural labour and exploited labour, and in other parts of the world in children’s labour.
“Governments must accept the responsibility to tackle that. We cannot leave it to hoping and wishing. We have to create the conditions that change that. We have to hold our Governments’ feet to the fire.”
Barriteau, who is Professor or Gender and Public Policy, holds a PhD in Political Science from Howard University in the United States. She has been with the UWI for more than 30 years.
(IMC1)
