Caribbean Woman - Joycelin Massiah

Professor Hoycelin Massiah was recently honored with the CARICOM Triennial Award for Women, at the opening of the 20th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, July 4, 1999. She is the sixth recipient of the award. Barbados, her adopted home, also honored her with the Gold Crown of Merit.

Guyanese by birth, and a citizen of Barbados with several years of service in Jamaica, Prof. Massiah is currently Regional Program Advisor, UNIFEM Caribbean Office. Prof. Massiah has several firsts in her illustrious career – first female Head of a Department, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados (UWI); first Caribbean female Professor, Faculty of Social Science, first female Director of any of the branches of the Institute of Social and Economic Research; first Coordinator of a major program of research about women in the region.

Her groundbreaking work, Women in the Caribbean Project (WICP), provided the English-speaking Caribbean with its first research designed specifically to gather data about women’s realities form women’s perspective.

Born Joycelin Averil Byrne, she grew up in Georgetown, Guyana and attended Bishops, one of the Caribbean’s finest girls’ high schools. Joycelin is married to Edgar Massiah. They have two sons, Andre and Adrian, and two grandsons, Alexander and Nicholas.

Editor’s note: Following receipt of the CARICOM honor, Prof. Massiah offered her vision for the future of the region, to a packed auditorium of Caribbean leaders. It is a vision for the human rights and economic empowerment of women, for education, for peace and for transformational leadership.

On the human rights of women…

The first part of my vision sees our region up front, forthright and fearless in upholding the human rights of women. My vision is that a human rights approach to gender will become an integral aspect of program design and implementation, that strong and well-resourced gender units will become a reality and that their location will signal the commitment of our political directorate to the universal human rights which we claim to uphold.

On the economic empowerment of women…

My vision is that economic decision-making in this region will become more open and inclusive, will routinely involve women and their organizations, and that we will show the rest of the world that we are not prepared to allow that divisive philosophy of globalization to affect the way we relate to each other and to distort the texture of social fabric.

On education…

My vision is that with the proper research and analysis, we will arrive at a sound understanding of such issues as how girls and boys are socialized. How do boys relate to boys, girls to girls and boys and girls to each other in the school environment and what is the impact of the youth culture on the willingness of boys and girls to participate in school learning? What adjustments must be made to teaching methods to provide the stimulation, which both boys and girls need? With this kind of understanding, it may become possible to reconstruct the education system to achieve a better balance of results between boys and girls.

On the issue of peace…

All of our countries have expressed concern at the increase in the incidence of crime and violence. The fact that much of this is gender-based violence often escapes our notice. My vision is to see this issue treated in a non-partisan manner by which politicians across all political parties, police, judges, lawyers, social workers, the medical fraternity, and the church all join together to mount a strong and continuous program to combat this scourge within our midst.

On leadership…

Perhaps our greatest need at this time is for the kind of leadership, which is concerned with transforming our societies in ways both great and small. I am looking for a leadership that starts with an honest and searching examination of itself. I am looking for a leadership that is concerned with empowering its people, not itself; a leadership which believes, like Mahatma Gandhi, that “I must be the change I wish to see” . We, the women of the region, wish to assure you that our vision of transformational leadership is not for women only or for women’s action alone. It is a vision that includes all Caribbean people and we invite you to share in it.