Human Services Ministry salutes celebrated women

Kaieteur News
March 27, 2007

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The Human Services Ministry has saluted a line-up of prominent females with an exhibition depicting four decades of women in decision-making.

The exhibition began on March 8 and coincided with the observance of International Women's Day. It highlighted women in authoritative positions, spanning the period 1966-2006.

Among the women are parliamentarians, cabinet ministers, legal decisions makers, judiciary members, public services' leaders, educators, medical professionals, director generals and managers.

The exhibition also depicted the first ladies of Guyana from 1966-2006, as well as outstanding women in the field of arts and culture.

Guyana's first woman president, Janet Jagan, who was also the fist lady, was among the powerful women on display.

The 10 women who ascended to the post of mayors are Dorothy Bailey, Beryl Simon, Mavis Benn, Violet Wong, Barbara Patricia Pilgrim, Gloria Layne, Everlyn Dobson, Florizel Coupain, Rlyritle Dudos and Everett Harewood.

Bailey, Simon and Benn served in Georgetown while Wong served the Rose Hall district.

Pilgrim was posted at New Amsterdam while Layne and Dobson served Linden.

Coupain, Dudos and Harewood served in Corriverton.

The female Ministers of Education were Winifred Gaskin, Shirley Field-Ridley, Cecilene Baird and Viola Burnham.

Genevieve Whyte-Nedd and Carmen Jarvis were the Chief Education Officers while Una Paul served as Deputy Education Officer.

Among the first ladies for the four decades were Dr Patricia Rose, who was the wife of Governor General David Rose, and Doreen Chung, wife of former President Arthur Chung.

Prime Minister Viola Burnham was the wife of Forbes Burnham, Joyce Hoyte, who was the wife of President Desmond Hoyte, Yvonne Hinds who was the wife of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Varshnie Jagdeo, the wife of President Bharrat Jagdeo.

There were several female parliamentarians during the period 1966-2006.

From 1966-1976 there were 14 women in Parliament while 24 women sat in parliament during the period 1986-1996.

In 1996-2006, there were 25 women in Parliament.

The highest number of women in Parliament sat during the period 1976-1986 and numbered 36.

Guyana's judiciary members are former Chancellor Desiree Bernard, Justices Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Dawn Gregory-Barnes, Claudette Singh, Claudette La Bennett and Roxanne George-Wiltshire who was also Guyana's first female Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Among Guyana's legal decision-makers are Supreme Court Registrar, Sita Ramlal, and Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Ali-Hack.

Women who headed the Women Affairs Bureau from its inception in 1981 to present were also on display at the exhibition.

These women are Yvonne Loncke-Warthe, Faustina Wards-Osborne, Patrice La Fleur, Hazel Halley and the current leader Hymawattie Lagan.

Guyana's distinguished female managers are listed as Director of BK International Briony Tiwarie, Human Resources Specialist Sandra Jones, Director of Guyana Tourism Authority, Indira Anandjit, UNESCO Secretary General, Carmen Jarvis, National Insurance Scheme Deputy Manager Doreen Nelson, Executive Director of Republic Bank, Yolande Foo, Foreign Affairs Director Ambassador Elisabeth Harper and Ambassador to Brazil Director General Cheryl Miles.

Maitland Singh was named as the first female Minister of Agriculture.

The first female Principal of Guyana School of Agriculture was Lynette Cunha while the only female Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture was Patsy Francis.

Ms Nisha Surujbally is listed as the Marketing Director of GUYSUCO, the only female to hold that post.

Only three doctors were named in top positions in the field of medicine.

These are Chief Medical Officer, Dr Enid Denbow; Head of the Infant and Maternal Care, Dr Jennifer Woolford; and National AIDS Programme Secretariat Head, Dr Shanti Singh.

The females to serve as Guyana's Permanent Secretaries are Angela Johnson, Jennifer Webster, Claudette Moore and Mitre Devi Ali.

The University of Guyana saw a limited number of females serving in administrative capacities.

There are four women who served as Deputy Vice Chancellors, one as Pro-Chancellor and one as Deputy Registrar.

Despite an abundance of lecturers, Guyana has only benefited from the expertise of three female professors.

Their names were given as Sister Mary Noel Menezes, Joycelynne Loncke and Doris Rogers.

The exhibition, which was organised by the National Resource and Documentation Centre for Gender and Development of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, ended on Friday March 23.