Indigenous villages should consider electing women leaders in upcoming elections

“Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.” This phrase is so common to our ears, but how often do we act on it? According to the World Bank, “one billion women—one out of three women globally—will face intimate partner violence or sexual violence in her lifetime.” The situation for indigenous women is even worse as they suffer disproportionate violence and discrimination due to their intersectional identities as both women and indigenous people. Studies have found that Indigenous women are among the most vulnerable groups in society and historically have been victims of poverty, violence, marginalization and racism due to lack of education.

In order to advance gender equity, a number of initiatives are required. For instance, men and boys should be educated from a very young age—at homes, schools and in communities—to cultivate a respect for women. Further, all people should be engaged in gender and development training to better appreciate the opposite sex and to gain knowledge that helps to reduce gender inequalities in communities. In addition, we need better social programmes to support women and address ongoing issues of gender–based violence, maternal and infant mortality, poverty and racism.

Although there is still much work to do, we are seeing significant changes in indigenous villages, especially when it comes to village council elections. In the South Rupununi villages alone, more women are contesting leadership positions, including the position of toshao. The nomination of indigenous women for these positions must be applauded and encouraged. We hope these women will be given the opportunity to become village leaders so that there will be an increase in indigenous women’s representation among toshaos and senior councillors. We need an improvement from the last election cycle, which saw only 24 women elected to leadership positions out of 200+ communities in Guyana.

We see that traditionally—whether it be globally, nationally, or locally—the preference is for a male leader. There seems to be a misconception that if a woman leader is elected, she will not be capable of handling all the responsibilities a toshao upholds and is very emotional. However, until women are given leadership positions, we can never move forward in breaking these stereotypes and address all the issues we face in our villages. For too long, we have ignored indigenous women. We have been told to keep quiet—in other words, that our opinions do not matter. Even more disheartening are the comments on social media where men in socalled “leadership positions” attack women for exercising our basic rights. One could just imagine what goes on at home or elsewhere. Such leaders should be challenged and replaced because they breed disrespect and harmful behaviour towards women.

It is about time that our communities and we as a society start appreciating our women more. It is time that women stop being afraid to voice their opinions, because they are also key decision-makers in the villages. Now is not the time to politicize everything, now is the time to elect a leader who will work in the best interests of all the people, respecting everyone. Therefore, we encourage our communities to work together to close the gender gap and consider electing women leaders in these upcoming elections.