An example of one of the many harsh comments the GWI Inc. management team received today for its All-Male team
The ire of the Guyanese Public was raised today (Friday, October 01, 2021) against the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) which boldly published the members of their management team which consist of not a single woman.
The publication of the images of the ‘all boys club’ drew some very strong comments from the members of the public in the comments section of the post on the GWI’s Facebook Page.
GWI falls under the Ministry of Housing and Water which is headed by Government Ministers Colin Croal and Susan Rodrigues. However, GWI has a Board of Directors which is tasked with appointments of senior operatives of the company.
Contacted for a comment on the glaring gender imbalance at GWI, both Ministers with responsibility for the agency expressed disappointment and stated that the board should have been considerate of the need for gender equality when considering appointments.
“Personally the management and way in which we do promotion should be based on competency but we are operating in a multi-racial, multi-gender society and GWI now has to make it a matter of policy that heavy consideration is given to this fact when addressing the issue of promotion and appointments” Minister Coral noted.
For her part as a woman, Minister Rodrigues minced no words when speaking about the issue.
“It is clear, the board has to fix this going forward. What obtains here is undesirable and we regret that this is the reality. I stayed very clear away from asking that the post be taken down because that will not fix the problem of the reality over there. What I can say to you is that going forward, I will do my part to ensure that women are represented adequately in all areas of our operation not only GWI, but our related agencies,” Minister Rodrigues told BIG Smith News Watch in an invited comment.
“Sometimes these things are not intentional but what we see today is a problem that needs fixing,” she added.
Gender equality and balance remain a topical issue in society with women often being forced to sit on the sidelines while men dominate. Women have over the years worked to ‘shatter the glass ceiling’ and are now elevating to the topmost positions in some agencies and organisations around the world.
GWI cannot even find consolation in the area of ethnicity balance on its management team as there is none.