Roadtown, Tortola - Good afternoon. We meet today in this wonderful setting to celebrate International Women’s Day 2009. For important local reasons we do so one week after March 8th, which is the day recognized worldwide as International Women’s Day. But the fact that our celebration is happening today, makes it no less important and special.
International Women’s Day is an opportunity for us in the Virgin Islands to reflect on, and celebrate, the accomplishments of women in the Virgin Islands and the wider world. It is also an opportunity to anticipate the bright future that is ahead for our women and our girls, participating fully in our societies.
So International Women’s Day is not only a time for reflection and appreciation. It is also a time for anticipation. We would be hard-pressed to find a single individual whose life has not been meaningfully impacted by a women whether a mother, a sister, cousin, aunt, friend, girlfriend, or wife. For that reason and more, we should all celebrate International Women’s Day.
The history of women both legal and social is one of women being treated as inferior to and of less value than men. That has been the case throughout the world. When I was a law student, the textbooks on family law had a single chapter that dealt in the same breath with women, children and lunatics as persons under legal disability. We have come a long way from that, but we are not yet where we want to be.
That is why it is crucial for governments, the churches, civil society, and everyone else to place issues of gender centre stage and on the front burner. That is why it is important for us to stay committed to implementing the global framework which is the Millennium Development Goal to achieve gender equality by 2015.
So we are moving forward with a national gender policy; with updating our laws on women, children and families; working to increase public education and information on gender; and informing men and women of their rights under the Constitution, the International Conventions and otherwise, as well as of their responsibilities; because of course, with all rights, come responsibilities and no rights are absolute.
I thank the Office of Gender Affairs for all its work, as well as those who work with them on a voluntary basis. Many issues remain:
• Domestic violence is on the increase
• Men and women are increasingly victims of violence
• Reports of sexual harassment in the workplace and elsewhere are on the increase
• The situation of some women especially in the labour market makes them vulnerable
• Our laws are still discriminatory in some respects especially in relation to children
• The legal burden remains on the woman in affiliation proceedings in cases of disputed paternity
There is really a great deal to address. I assure you that the journey continues and I urge and encourage each of you (men, women, boys and girls) to be part of this journey.
So today, for all of us, I raise my voice in praise of the Virgin Islands woman, and especially the many who have paved the way for those of us who are here today. Those who may have stooped sometimes, but who now stand tall, and on whose shoulders we stand.
I say heartfelt congratulations to the seven women who are honoured today and I thank each of them for their continuing contributions to our lives and our communities. I know each of you in a special way, and each of you deserve recognition.
I remember today just a few of the many women who have been influences in my own life; women who played vital roles in shaping our destiny, women who were architects and builders of today’s Virgin Islands.
They were mothers – some wives, some single mothers, grandmothers, great aunts, god sisters, aunts, cousins; some of them were women mothering and fathering children at the same time.
They were women of industry, of independence, of courage, of pride; noble women – women who worked on their own and with men in different ways to build our country. And it strikes me, thinking about it today, that in addition to being wives, and mothers, and parents, so many of them were entrepreneurs; business women, pioneers in their various fields . And in mentioning some, let me say that I intend to exclude none.
• Mrs. Florencia Lettsome – “Miss Flo” as she was called - (the mother of Dr Quincy Lettsome and others) who was our local butcher in East End
• Mrs. Catherine Lettsome – who was blessed with 100 plus years of life, and who left a great and good legacy of 22 children
• Mrs. Oxcelina Chalwell – “ Miss Oxie” business women, baker, pillar in the church, a woman of elegant style
• Mrs. Marie Wheatley (the mother of Dr Charles Wheatley and others) – a leader in straw work who turned out fine hats and bags for sale here in Tortola, in St Thomas and St Croix and elsewhere
• The many women in East End who worked in the Cottage Industry plaiting straw “tire” as we called it, and “knitting” straw to cover bottles for LINQUIST in St Thomas a part of the bay rum industry. That straw work industry was a major pillar in the East End the economy in the 1950’s and 1960’s
• Mrs. Linda (Varlack) Thomas who worked side by side with her husband farming
• Dr Ilva Lettsome (as she came to be called) – one of the leading farmers in the country whose contribution continues through her children who include our leading female farmer Moviene Fahie, her son “Darkie” Lettsome and others
• Women of enterprise like Ella Gift, celebrated in song for her role in events during Prohibition. She is celebrated in song by the Sparkplugs song “OVER THE SIDE” “OVER THE SIDE”
• Mrs. Louise Scatliffe from Fahie Hill and Mrs. Pora Frett from Long Look for keeping the tradition of making cassava bread alive.
• Mrs. Alexandrina Maduro, Miss Isabella Morris, Miss Enid Scatliffe, Miss Althea Scatliffe in education.
• Miss Mary Davies in nursing and midwifery. At her home at what is now 100 Main Street, she delivered hundreds of babies, including me.
• The Midwives in the Villages – Mrs. Rosa Malone and Mrs. Rosamond Penn in the East End / Long Look area, and there were others.
• Miss Harriette Penn, MBE, the first woman to be appointed to the office of Treasurer which is today called Financial Secretary
• Mrs. Rubena Brewley Akiel – an educator, singer, creator and singer of the calypso of “GIN AND COCONUT WATER”.
• Ms Gracita Faulkner of Anegada – a professional concert singer who graced stages in Europe and the United States, even in the days of racial segregation and who performed with musicians like Lionel Belasco and others. Mrs. Faulkner is pictured at page 117 of a book name CALYPSO CALALOO: EARLY CALYPSO MUSIC OF TRINIDAD with Lionel Belasco. Belasco was a classically trained pianist from Trinidad, who recorded music all over the world and who featured prominently in the litigation in the US over the song “RUM AND COCONUT WATER”.
• Edith Davies – who produced fine handmade crochet and the handiwork.
• Mrs. Vanella Chalwell – a master of so much
• Clover Penn Anthony – A teacher who had special training in art and craft. She opened a slipper factory in Road Town, and also worked to create a Women’s Cooperative in Road Town. This was run by another woman Miss Emma Norman and was an important business outlet and opportunity for women in our country.
• Two tall, elegant women who I believe were sisters Beatrice and Clementine Smith from Salt Island. For as long as they were able to, they kept alive the tradition of breaking the Salt Pond, and selling “pond salt”.
We must recognise the contributions made by women who dared to tread into a field that even today, is regarded as the purview of men and a game for boys; not for ladies. That is certainly what I was told when I decided to venture into the field of elected politics and membership in our legislature. Even young men told me that.
Despite all the advances and successes that women have made, the gains have not been seen in that field. But deep gratitude is due to the women who had the courage, to venture into that field: Mrs. Millicent Mercer, Mrs. Patsy Lake, Miss Eileen Baronville, Mrs. Medita Wheatley, Mrs. Eileen Lucia Parsons, Miss Ethlyn Smith, Mrs. Delores Christopher, Mrs. Malcia Rhymer, Mrs. Belsadys Donovan, Miss Inez Turnbull, Mrs. Zoe Walcott-McMillan, and Mrs. Irene Penn-O’Neal who is with me as a woman in the House of Assembly.
A woman has been Speaker of the House, and women have been Clerks at the Table. Women have been leaders in the Executive branch of Government both as Deputy Governor and Acting Governor.
And of course there were the women who were recognized here in this Noel Lloyd/Positive Action Park just two weeks ago as stalwarts of the Positive Action Movement. It is right that we as women recognize them too: Mrs. Patsy Lake, Mrs. Lou Harrigan, and Mrs. Hilda Abbott Smith
And the several others many of whom were not seen publicly – but who no doubt were part of it, and who must have worried, and sacrificed and suffered. Noel Lloyd’s wife, Nerida and his mother. We know how mothers feel, we know how mothers worry.
And I think of my own mother Una Amythest Davies Penn who sacrificed her teaching career to be a wife to her husband, my father, and to raise the 6 children with whom they were blessed. It is they who taught me the most important things in my life – good values, manners, the difference between right and wrong, about fairness and justice, and service and stewardship. My mother was a woman who in addition to everything else was a confidante and a friend and whose standards and principles still guide me.
These are just a few of the many women who sometimes alone, often side by side with men, built this country, and who must be recognized as key pillars in its development. It is they who paved the way. It is truly on their shoulders that we all stand.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a little, just a little, just a smattering of the tremendous contributions that women have made in the development of the Virgin Islands. It is unwritten, it is unsung, and today I make a call for us to document the history of our women. Knowing one’s history is an important pillar in our development, in our identity, in strengthening our sense of self, in building national pride.
And I do not for one second forget the women in our sister Virgin Islands, in wider the Caribbean and beyond.
So I mention:
• Ruby Rouse of St Croix
• Dame Hilda Bynoe of Grenada
• the MIRABEL sisters in the Dominican Republic
• Dame Nita Barrow of Barbados
• Dame Eugenia Charles of the Commonwealth of Dominica
• Ann Liburd of St Kitts and Nevis
• Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan
• Indira Ghandi of India
• Hillary Rodham Clinton and Michele Obama in the United States
• Winnie Mandela of South Africa
• Miram Makeba of South Africa – she only left us recently and was a huge figure in the anti-apartheid struggle
• Ellen Sirleaf Johnson a noted economist, and the serving President of Liberia
And, my own mother in law, Yandeh Nyan Sallah, now of blessed memory. A woman known for her elegance and style and her charitable works, who side by side with her husband raised their 11 children and sent them out into the world – some of them working in Africa, some in Sweden, in the United States, in England across the seas, and here in the Virgin Islands.
Women like Flora Pascal of whom Dr Nesha Hanif writes in her book
“Blaze a Fire Significant Contributions of Caribbean Women”. Dr Hanif writes in the introduction to her book: “I recall that Flora Pascal was presented to me by the community group in Dominica as a housewife. One of the most devalued areas of women’s work is domestic labour, so I wanted to include Flora Pascal. She could not understand why I was putting her in a book [as] she was “just a housewife” ”.
Dr Hanif said that she asked Flora what she did. Flora replied:
“ - plant four acres of bananas
- sing in the choir
- decorate the church
- look after six children
- take care of the house
- sell home-made baked goods outside her home
- grow anthuriums for sale
- get up at three in the morning to walk one and a half hours to her farm and back
- do other chores – washing, ironing and so on”.
These are many Flora Pascal’s throughout the Caribbean. In fact all over the world. We all know them. They are in our midst everyday. We should recognize them, we should pay tribute to them and remember them.
We salute all women: Nurturers, counsellors, advisors, the one who will chastise you in the morning and cherish you in the evening – as my grandmother use to say “A mother – she pushes you with one hand and pulls you back with the other”.
Women who as Louise Bennett, that icon of Caribbean Literature and master story teller put it:
“Neck an neck an foot an foot wid man
She buckle hole her own;
While man a call she “so-so rib”
Oman a tun backbone”.
So the theme of this year’s celebration is so important – “Women and Men United to Build Healthier Relationships”. Gender is about men and women; not about women only. So that even though our focus today is on women; - it is by no means to exclude men. Our society needs 100% of its people; not 50%; so men and women must work together. They must work together to build healthier relationships and healthier societies.
Thank you.
British Virgin Islands News