Women and a few men of the BWU took to the streets of Bridgetown as a part of their celebrations of International Women’s Day.
March held in the City to celebrate International Women’s Day
YESTERDAY, March 8, was International Women’s Day and as part of the celebrations the women of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and some men took to the streets of Bridgetown for a march to raise awareness on some of the prevalent issues in society today.
Wilma Clement of the BWU and the Gender Equality Committee Co-ordinator told the media at the starting point of the march, which was the BWU’s headquarters, that she was excited and happy with the turnout.
“This morning is the culmination of our commemoration of International Women’s Day. It is something we do annually and we are taking to the streets of Bridgetown to raise the issues that are important to us, things such as inequality in the workplace, violence in the workplace and society, the fact that women have got the ability to perform as well as the men, the need for women in leadership, and just celebrating women in general,” she said.
“So we are going to be leaving here and going through Bridgetown and then we will return here [BWU Headquarters] for a panel discussion on Sexual Harassment.”
She revealed that this is the tenth year for the march and noted that she is pleased with the progress that they have made so far.
She explained that she would have heard from the group of persons present yesterday that they were planning to take the necessary steps to see some progress in the workplace.
“One area I can say that has been focused on is women’s leadership. We have been looking at our union and the women in the union and the women and men who we have here have decided that after today, they are going to meet together and formulate some strategies and a plan to identify potential women leaders,” she said.
She added that the group plans to work with the women that they would have identified and prepare them to assume leadership positions. But of particular importance to Clement was the fact that the group was not only looking to prepare them for these positions, but also support them going forward.