BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FROM time immemorial, it was preached that this is a man’s world and a woman’s place is in the home. Today, however, there is a vast difference as women compete against their male counterparts in almost every field of work. And this is not only due to the males not honouring their responsibilities, because in many homes, the world over, the male presence is absent for some reason or another.
Today, unlike yesteryear, we see women in the army, women in the police force, women as mechanics, pilots, and the list goes on. Even in the distant past it is said that women were not ordained in religion, especially in the Roman and Anglican Communions. It was not until 1944 when Li Tim-Oi was ordained in the Anglican Communion in the Diocese of Hong Kong that we see many others been accepted in that religious body.
In the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, we have seen a breakthrough in gender inequality. We have seen women bracing shoulders with men in the political arena and the business world, just to name a few.
But this article is primarily based on a relatively new trade that many women in the Federation have embraced…Construction.
Early last week, a group of women under training in the construction field at All Solutions International Inc. were advised to compete with their male counterparts and to “Go for it”.
This advice was given by the Hon. Marcella Liburd, the Minister with responsibility for Gender Affairs, who paid a visit to the entity, which is located at the C.A. Paul Southwell Industrial Site, to get a first hand view of what the participants were doing and to advise them on the concept of “From the Basement to the Attic”.
“Go for it,” she said, “construction is a field that is not usual to see women in the environment. But why can’t women be in construction? Is it that women can’t do the work that is done on the construction site? I don’t think so! I think it is really part of our culture, upbringing and training where we sought to segment jobs and we say this is for women and that is for men. And so out of that social upbringing we tend to categorise jobs by gender.”
In an effort to qualify her point, Minister Liburd reminded her audience of the message that is traditionally been sent by parents to their children.
“When we buy toys for our children, trucks and aeroplanes are for the boys and dollies for the girls,” she said, while adding that girls could also be pilots and mechanics, but it is the parents who instill within the children’s mind that the females’ duty is within the home and they could not cope with the strenuous work or trade in which men are involved.
“We have to start socialising our society in a way to understand that all jobs are open to males and females on the question of ability and not gender. And so we are very happy under the PEP Programme that we are able to bring women construction to the field. And I love your slogan…’From the Basement to the Attic’,” she said in disagreement to the traditional belief that it is a man’s world with respect to certain aspects of the work environment.
The slogan, “From the Basement to the Attic”, was simply defined by the Managing Director of All Solutions International Inc., Walcott Hillocks, who is also the Chief Facilitator of the Women in Construction Project, a People Employment Programme (PEP) sponsored by the Sugar Industry Diversification Fund (SIDF).
He explained that in the construction of a building, one has to start from the basement then systematically move upwards until one reaches the attic or go even further to the penthouse.
Using this analogy, Minister Liburd urged the women to apply it for their upward mobility in life. She stressed that one could only be successful in whatever one does by applying the right attitude and that “attitude must be to get to the attic”.
“You have to look at it in two ways. You must look at it literally, because if you are in construction and you are building homes you have to take it from the basement to the attic for completion; from the ground floor right up to the roof. But today I want us for a moment to transfer that literal interpretation into the figurative side where you apply that same slogan to your personal life. I want you to personalise it. I want you to say for yourselves, ‘I will take my own life from the basement to the attic’.
“When you are sitting down and you are thinking about life, think about that. Very often, I know, most of us focus on the challenges that we have. We focus on what we don’t have. I want to tell you something…that for you to be successful is for you to get over those challenges. Challenges stop us from getting where we want to be…nothing stops us but our mind. We just have to ensure that we tell ourselves that the life I have I want to take it from the basement to the attic.”
Minister Liburd also stressed that “learning has no age limit” and advised the women to grasp everything that they are being taught at All Solutions, as construction would surely bring an increase to their income.
She also told them that whatever they do as women would transcend to their families for their betterment and eventually to the communities within which they live, and finally the country as a whole.
Thirty-six women (including four individuals from the Dominican Republic) and five men are training in the construction field. However, along with the men, 27 women are at All Solutions while nine of them are two other locations; five are being trained in Electrical Installation and four in Concrete Fixing and Steel Bending.
Those at All Solutions are being trained in Carpentry (Joinery and Framing), masonry, Dry Wall and Finishing, Basic Electrical Installation and Plumbing, Painting and Rendering, Polish Concrete, and Computer-Aided Design Architectural Drafting among other subject areas.
According to Hillocks, the plans are afoot for trainees to construct a home to house an indigent person with the basic facilities including a ramp for the wheelchair-bound.
The PEP SIDF-sponsored programme began on January 12, 2013 and the participants have so far completed the Life Skills Phase and are now in the Technical Phase. And on completion of that Phase, they would be engaged in the final one which is the Business Development Phase, according to Programme Coordinator Celia Christopher.
Also present at All Solutions was Youth Director Geoffrey Hanley, who is also the PEP Programme Manager.
He informed the trainees that they would be provided with some basic tools shortly before completion of the project, and that with the government’s numerous construction projects coming on stream in the near future, there would be no problem with employment.
