The under representation of women in key decision-making positions in Government means that everything from the price of goods to social security, healthcare, the cost and quality of education, human services… in short, the economic future of our Nation is seen only through the eyes of men.
This MUST BE CHANGED.
Gender bias in our policy-making has inevitably resulted in a struggling economy.
The answers our country needs, the decisions made, and the barometers chosen to measure our economic progress all reflect a male way of looking at the economy: Always a mathematical equation; always a political agenda based of self-serving greed.
A woman’s way would be more people oriented, sustainable, a more home-grown type economy with long term sustainable solutions.
Because our sex has a lot to do with our physiological make up, with our character and our mental processes… Belize’s Economy is in dire need of an economic sexual revolution!
The economic policies that affect the lives of every single one of us, must have a woman’s hand if we will better our minimum wage, if we will look at benefits for our working class and civil servants, health system improvements, agriculture, the rights to more economic incentives for our farmers, education, MINERAL RIGHTS for land owners and so much more…
STOP IMAGINING AND WAKE UP
It is not at all surprising that at every budget speech we hear about how wonderful our economy is doing; and even less surprising is the fact that life outside of these imagining of possibilities, (fantasies) has been ignored by our leaders.
It is also unsurprising that Laws and policies are being passed without the input of our women; many of which have a particularly strong effect on the lives of women, children and our elderly. For example; men are still paying our women an average of $50.00 per week per child, for the children they have abandoned… yet the cost of living rises along with our fuel prices. Social security policies that are depriving our elderly from a dignified life, go un-rectified. Importation taxes on food items can go up to 40% if we bring our shopping from across the borders, yet importers, who are mostly related to Government ministers get large importation licences with many attractive incentives to import many of these products and the poor pay elevated rates when they hit the shelves. It’s a sad situation when because of family ties, importation permits are issued with no consideration for local produce.
MALE DECISIONS
These are all Male dominated decisions for our Country, Men you see are Believed to be more astute and more calculative in their decision process; That may be true because they look at short term outcomes. They make decisions based on how much time they have in power, how much money they can accumulate while in power. The decision process we have experienced in Belize through a Male dominated Government has been that of corruption, greed, nepotism and selfishness.
Dr. Therese Huston, the founding director of the center for faculty development at Seattle University has spent the past fifteen years helping smart people make better decisions. She has written for the New York Times and Harvard Business Review and has done extensive research on the decision-making process of Men vs Women. Dr. Therese said, “When men make decisions they make judgments. When Women make decisions, they have to worry about making judgments and about being judged!”
Belize and most of the world have grossly underestimated a woman’s ability to make astute and calculative choices. The difference of when women makes these choices is that we think of the effect our choices will have on People before we think of the benefits to our bank accounts. Like Dr Therese said we are forced to think of the Judgment society will make on us for every decision we make…this fact makes us even more careful and caring.
WOMEN HAVE POTENTIAL
By neglecting the input of women leaders as policy makers, our people are blind to the potential of our Country’s economic future; They are blind to improvements, creativity and innovations, empowered women can offer to our struggling economy. whether we want to talk about our economic problems, our shortages in our ministry of health… the shortage of employment opportunities, deflation, stagnant wages, crime, injustice, political corruption, or our territorial controversy the problems we face as a nation is a Nation sex problem! Women are still viewed as more emotional, unstable and weaker.
In more progressive Countries like Germany, Brazil, South Korea and Sweden, Women have been entrusted as heads of state. Janet Yellen was directing the Central Bank system (federal reserve) of the United states in 2014, I believed she has been replace …still Women now account for 34 percent of the directors, up from 24 percent five years ago. and Christine Lagarde is directing the International Monetary Fund since 2011. This tells me that the World has recognized Women’s ability to make good economic decisions. Belize is sadly logging behind and our Children are paying the price.
Now we can continue in this chaotic path of destructive greedy decision making or we can ask our men to step aside and our women to step in and finish this ride.
No Government has any Power, unless the power is given by the People. In short…It’s up to us all.