Hazel Brown has dealt a ma­jor set­back to all women in the coun­try who are po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed. This in­cludes the women can­di­dates con­test­ing the Oc­to­ber 12 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions. Hazel's Net­work of NGOs for the Ad­vance­ment of Women should be more sen­si­tive to women's is­sues and not make such wild and un­sub­stan­ti­at­ed state­ments.

The net­work must lob­by to in­flu­ence all lo­cal po­lit­i­cal par­ties to en­shrine gen­der eq­ui­ty quo­tas in their poli­cies which would be re­flect­ed in their se­lec­tion of can­di­dates. Such a move would def­i­nite­ly en­sure more women would step up and face the elec­torate at elec­tion time.

This en­cour­age­ment must ac­com­pa­ny in­cen­tives, like ad­dress­ing the needs of child­care, so when women are up and about they are con­fi­dent that their chil­dren are safe. An­oth­er idea is to of­fer na­tion­al men­tor­ship pro­grammes to fa­cil­i­tate and sup­port these very spe­cial and brave women in our so­ci­ety.Women can be sub­stan­tive po­lit­i­cal can­di­dates. The im­por­tant ques­tion is if vot­ers are ready to elect them to of­fice.

Orvis Noel

St Au­gus­tine