Women As Leaders

Thirty women leaders form 18 national, regional and international organizations in 13 countries attended the two-day leadership workshop for women’s NGOs in the Caribbean.

The workshop was held at the Flamboyant Hotel, St George’s, Grenada, from December 1-2, 1998. It was organized by CAFRA in collaboration with HIVOS and UNIFEM. GRENDCODA acted as host agency.

Dr Rhoda Reddock, Coordinator of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, Trinidad and Tobago, was the guest speaker. Dr Reddock looked at the history of women’s organizations in the Caribbean and traced its rich heritage in women’s self-help societies. She identified 1975, the UN International Women’s Year, as a watershed. She also looked at the establishment of national women’s groupings, NGOs and quasi-government institutions.

The two-day workshop was seen as a follow-up to issues identifies in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Commonwealth Plan of Action. It examined findings form the needs assessment survey conducted as part of the workshop process. Participants were also introduced to a number of leadership, management and organizational development skills in response to the priority needs identified.
The workshop was a historic one indeed. It provided a space for reflection on the history of women’s organizations and empowered participants to be more proactive in helping to shape the future of the women’s movement in the region. Analysis shows s that women’s organizations , like many NGOs in the Caribbean region, are facing a number of institutional, financial and leadership crises.

Current challenges facing the women’s movement were also highlighted:

• the perception among the younger generation of students that feminism is a dead issue hence the need for strategies to transfer ideas and heritage form one generation to another.

• the need for strategies to handle issues of difference

• manhood and masculinity in the Caribbean and the ensuing backlash, which was like a “civil war between men and women” in which women were blamed for men’s marginalization

• lifestyle issues

• the need to strengthen organizations and recreate institutions with each new generation and

• the need to create feminist models of democracy in institutions.