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  • 10 months ago
Dr Rosina Wiltshire, a pioneer in Gender Equality says the world seems to be receding when it comes to the call, she is lobbying for a revamp of the education system.
Transcript
00:00In 1995, some 189 countries in attendance at the Beijing Women's Conference adopted
00:08a landmark declaration and 150-page Platform for Action to Achieve Gender Equality.
00:15Born in Pointe-a-Pierre and raised in Laboree, Trinidad, I had the privilege of leading the
00:22United Nations substantive position in Beijing and overseeing the finalization of the negotiations
00:29in the prior months.
00:30Dr. Rosina Wiltshire was not alone.
00:34Women from Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean were key activists and allies in
00:41the negotiation and advocacy.
00:45These names included Hazel Brown, Angela Cropper, Nea Passard, Clotilde Walcott, Faith Wiltshire
00:54and Grace Talma, founding members of the 1971 Housewives Association of Trinidad and
01:02Tobago.
01:03Then there was a single aim.
01:05The goal was always to advocate for an end to poverty and inequality, an end to violence
01:14and destruction of the earth, and support of policy which lifted women and their voices
01:21while also lifting men, children and marginalized peoples in the achievement of the well-being
01:30of all.
01:31And now, 30 years after Beijing, where are we?
01:38Much progress has been made.
01:41We can celebrate the fact that in most countries girls now have the right to an education.
01:49We've had several female prime ministers.
01:54Women have made major advances in education, health.
01:59Dr. Wiltshire says we are not where we ought to be.
02:03However, the world globally seems to be going backward, with inequality increasing and women's
02:11rights under attack.
02:15Loss of money, greed and power are fueling a rise in inequality and authoritarian leadership,
02:23with heightening ethnic, racial and gender divisions and increasing violence the dominant
02:30order.
02:31With the gains of social media, she says, there came also dangers.
02:36Addiction to social media, greater alienation and openness to mind control are dangerous
02:44trends.
02:47The pushback by groups that previously benefited from privilege and dominance has also heightened.
02:55While in the Caribbean we can celebrate that girls enjoy the right to education, in countries
03:01like Afghanistan, girls no longer have that privilege.
03:05Dr. Wiltshire says women's advancement is often pitted as competition instead of progress.
03:11There is the increasing cry in our region of what about the men?
03:17With women's progress in some areas posited as an assault on the status of men and sometimes
03:26advanced as reasons for violence against women.
03:29She says society is at a turning point.
03:32There is no question that women are graduating in greater numbers from high school and formal
03:37university.
03:38There is also no question that boys are more attracted to IT fields which are earning them
03:44higher levels of employment and more pay than the girls with high school or university diplomas.
03:51While violence, division and growing despair consume us, the graduation numbers game gets
03:58us nowhere.
04:01Some of our educational institutions building on the creativity and gifts of our society
04:09to strengthen creativity, cooperation and innovation is essential.
04:16And solutions are easy to find.
04:18Early childcare education provides children at risk with an early start.
04:25It also permits single mothers to work and reduces the cycle of poverty.
04:32I had, as you heard, the privilege of attending an all-girls school, Bishop Anstey High School.
04:39Trinidad and Tobago and the region implemented mixed schools when the research clearly demonstrated
04:47that boys in particular underperformed in mixed schools because of their different learning
04:54needs and distractions when girls were present during teenage years.
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