Mak­ing women win­ners is hard­wired in­to our or­gan­i­sa­tion­al DNA. In fact, it’s our mot­to. So, every year, it gives us a great thrill to sup­port, ho­n­our and bring women to­geth­er in recog­ni­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day. Es­pe­cial­ly for this year’s theme— #Em­braceE­quity.

The As­so­ci­a­tion of Fe­male Ex­ec­u­tives of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AFETT) recog­nis­es and cel­e­brates the achieve­ments of women with­in our com­mu­ni­ty as well as those who have paved the way for our path of ac­com­plish­ment through­out his­to­ry and across cul­tures.

While we make strides to­wards eq­ui­ty, it is im­por­tant to al­so recog­nise the en­gage­ment and em­pow­er­ment of women to fur­ther progress our so­ci­etal en­deav­ours and goals. In ad­di­tion, we ad­vo­cate for a more wide­spread un­der­stand­ing that eq­ui­ty is dif­fer­ent to equal­i­ty. Eq­ui­ty en­sures that all per­sons are pro­vid­ed with suf­fi­cient re­sources to en­sure suc­cess, rather than an equal dis­tri­b­u­tion of those as­sets.

It is es­sen­tial that as a na­tion we sup­port, en­cour­age and in­volve women in var­i­ous fields in em­brac­ing eq­ui­ty. As an or­gan­i­sa­tion, we be­lieve that women em­pow­er­ing women is key to achiev­ing suc­cess in ma­jor ini­tia­tives to re­duce the eco­nom­ic gen­der di­vide and to en­hance the in­clu­sion of women in lead­er­ship roles. It is al­so im­per­a­tive we recog­nise that all per­sons have a role to play in ef­fect­ing a more eq­ui­table dis­tri­b­u­tion of re­sources. Our view is that both women and men will reap the ben­e­fits of an em­pow­ered and pro­gres­sive gen­er­a­tion with the elim­i­na­tion of en­trenched struc­tur­al and so­ci­etal gen­der in­equal­i­ty.

As change­mak­ers our­selves, we’ve had a first­hand view to note that when women are sup­port­ed to use their voic­es, we be­come pow­er­ful change cat­a­lysts. Women are tru­ly ef­fi­cient and ef­fec­tive agents of progress when giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty and re­sources to pos­i­tive­ly con­tribute.

Glob­al­ly, it has been es­ti­mat­ed that Gross Do­mes­tic Prod­uct (GDP) per capi­ta would be high­er if gen­der em­ploy­ment gaps were closed. In ad­di­tion, es­ti­mat­ed eco­nom­ic gains if women start­ed and scaled new busi­ness­es at the same rate as their male coun­ter­parts con­ser­v­a­tive­ly ranges in the amount of USD 5–6 tril­lion.

Eq­ui­table fe­male em­pow­er­ment is more than a ‘nice to have’ op­tion for de­vel­op­ment check­lists.

As an or­gan­i­sa­tion, it is one of our man­dates to pro­mote the im­por­tance of em­pow­er­ing women and girls to achieve suc­cess. Thus, we have strate­gi­cal­ly es­tab­lished projects, such as our REACH men­tor­ship pro­gramme, to sup­port young women in dis­cov­er­ing the pow­er of pur­pose in the use of their voic­es. Al­so, in recog­ni­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day, we ho­n­our the achieve­ments of lo­cal women via our an­nu­al Women of In­flu­ence Awards and Men­tor­ship Cel­e­bra­tion.

Al­though AFETT ac­knowl­edges the glob­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant strides that have con­tributed to­wards fe­male eq­ui­ty, as well as in the fight to em­pow­er and up­lift women, there is still work to be done.

As we cel­e­brate In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day this year, we in­vite the na­tion to join us, and ful­ly em­brace the im­mense po­ten­tial of women to build a bet­ter world.

Pres­i­dent, AFETT with thanks to our Team.

The Dig­i­tal Gen­der Di­vide

Mary Cuffy

Now is the hour of dig­i­tal pow­er,

Look at she us­ing dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy,

To build peace and re­duce gen­der in­equal­i­ty,

Once con­fined to the home and mar­ket­place,

Us­ing smart­phones smart­ly,

Us­ing the in­ter­net not to just surf the net,

But to fa­cil­i­tate and ac­com­mo­date.

How can she with tremen­dous promise serve the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty?

With widen­ing ac­cess to tech­nol­o­gy,

Re­duc­ing so­cial bar­ri­ers and boost­ing the econ­o­my?

Her fin­ger is her voice, us­ing the in­ter­net not to just surf the net,

Let’s wel­come her pro­fi­cien­cy in 2023.

Glob­al at­ten­tion is the cen­tre of her dis­ser­ta­tion,

Mov­ing the at­ten­tion from on­ly so­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion via What­sApp, Face­book, and In­sta­gram

To meet­ing in­flu­encers over the di­as­po­ra,

Us­ing the in­ter­net not to just surf the net.

Since the evo­lu­tion there was a rev­o­lu­tion,

To rev­o­lu­tionise the plat­form with a trend­ing hash­tag for #gen­der equal­i­ty,

The pen­du­lum swung and now we singing a new song,

Let’s talk in­clu­sion in civ­il so­ci­ety,

She not us­ing the in­ter­net to just surf the net.

Let’s put this in his­to­ry we not no glob­al av­er­age, we sav­age,

Look at she in 2023 us­ing the tools with pro­fi­cien­cy,

Ad­dress­ing glob­al is­sues and po­lit­i­cal dis­par­i­ties,

Cre­at­ing con­tent to make oth­er women aware that dig­i­tal me­dia has

eco­nom­ic pow­er,

She not us­ing the in­ter­net to just surf the net.