Don’t segregate boys and girls

He said that too often, boys and girls are separated when it comes to health and family life education especially sexual and reproductive education. “Apparently to teach girls something different from men or boys and that should not be the case. There needs to be a holistic approach to it where health education is afforded to both male and female, so males better understand their female counterpart and vice versa.” Edwards made the comments at the Association of Female Executives (AFETT) monthly meeting at Carlton Savannah in Port of Spain. Why can’t we all get along?, was the theme of the meeting.

Edwards was part of a panel comprising Sue-Ann Barratt of The UWI Institute of Gender and Development Studies and Sharon Mottley, study lead at the National Alliance of State and Territorial Aids Directors. Noting there was a public discussion surrounding sex ed in schools with many saying it was the responsibility of the parent, Edwards asked, “how can you expect a parent when he or she has not benefited from any kind of sexual education, to pass on that information to their children?” A re-education programme, he said, should take place in a lot of these offices, where parents could come together and benefit from this education. Then parents, Edwards said, could do their part. This re-education needs to take place particularly in the public sector. Edwards spoke to a number of issues and the role of men and boys in the movement for gender equity.

Gender equity, he said, stands to benefit the nation but this country is replete with cowards too afraid to attack notions that have been ingrained into their psyche. He said that too often, people would go on social media and complain but beyond that, do nothing further. Using the workplace as an example, he said there is a major discrepancy in terms of wages paid to women as opposed to a man’s wage. Yet nothing is said about this. “Up to now we cannot even have a proper gender policy in this country,” he said.