B.V.I. Friday, October 23 – The Office of Gender Affairs has extended its Gender Awareness Workshops to Virgin Gorda.
Head of Gender Affairs Ms. Patricia Hackett and senior staff members from the Department of Human Resources recently facilitated a daylong gender awareness session entitled ‘Sexual Harassment in the Workplace – What it Is’? The session was held at the Vanterpool Administration Building in the Valley.
Since the workshops’ inception and prior to the recent session on Virgin Gorda, Gender Awareness Workshops were only held on Tortola. Ms. Hackett said she was pleased with the response to the workshop on the sister-island, which was held in collaboration with the Department of Human Resources.
“The overall objective of the workshop was to increase knowledge and understanding of gender and its related issues in the workplace”, noted Ms. Hackett. Other objectives were to define harassment in general and sexual harassment in particular, identify examples of sexual harassment, and consider appropriate responses to sexual harassment.
Additional relevant topics, noted Ms. Hackett, included “types of sexual harassment” and “verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature”. She said participants received tools that will help in responding to sexual harassment in the workplace. “Participants also learnt the difference between sex and gender, sex and gender stereotypes, and gender roles and relations in the workplace”, she added.
Presentations were done by the Head of Gender Affairs, Human Resources Manager for Employee Relations Ms. Clearlie Brown and Human Resources Manager for Organisational Development and Planning Ms. Shavon Henley.
Participants in the Virgin Gorda Gender Awareness Workshop were drawn from various departments of government. They included the Fire and Rescue Services Department, the Department of Agriculture, the Labour Department, the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force, the Library Services Department, the Social Development Department, and Water and Sewerage Department.
The workshop on September 24 was the tenth in a series of workshops for public servants to be hosted by the Office of Gender Affairs and the seventh since the Office was reassigned to the Ministry of Health and Social Development. The Office of Gender Affairs was previously known as the Women’s Desk. It develops and implements policies and programs that promote gender equity and equality in the British Virgin Islands, among other duties.
British Virgin Islands News