A woman useless without a man?

“And to besides,” said the driver, “all yuh have too many special days already. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, and every single day all yuh want something.

What about some days for we men? Is time we get something.” He was speaking loudly so that all passengers could hear his words of wisdom. The more the woman tried to get a word in edgeways the louder he spoke, “Without a man, what all yuh could do?” The sad story is that in TT many women also can see a certain inevitability about his words. The may believe that, apart from cooking, cleaning and having children, they are totally useless.

It is important to note that our Trini culture embraces the belief that both Afro and Indo mothers prefer to have sons rather than daughters.

The man in the house is “the man” even if he is two years old.

Same thing for the Syrians, the old colonials and, let’s face it, the rest of the world, which is why International Women’s Day had to be created.

So, between our pernicious “must have a boyfriend syndrome” and having a child, for whoever, just to be seen as somebody’s mother, with a smile on our faces, we take our licks and all forms of domestic violence. Pushing a pram is like having a Master’s degree in education.

But I am also just as bad as the maxi driver.

I came back to a TT where women find very useful and fulfilling work as security guards. The first thing I thought was that no woman can save me if a man is attacking me. It is only the police.

Then of late I am hearing that the police expect to be treated as if they are hot-house orchid flowers which sell at $175 for one in our leading supermarket chain. Allegedly, 600 officers found the time not to go out to work over the Carnival.

For International Women’s Day, I have to applaud the women police officers who had to work with the added hindrance of the public allegedly thinking they cannot be better than the policemen. The way things are going with the police we need a female Police Commissioner next time around.

Lynette Joseph Diego Martin