NHA gender woes

Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley highlighted the issue of domestic violence last Thursday, when he asserted that this is a key reason why women were flooding the National Housing Authority with applications. Unfortunately, Dr Rowley did not make it clear how he came to this conclusion. True, the NHA’s housing application form does ask for the marital status of the applicant, but just because someone is divorced or separated does not mean the reason is domestic violence. Besides, Dr Rowley himself said that more than half the applicants were women. Since the female population of this country is 50 percent, it is not surprising that women should form just over half the number of persons wanting houses.

What is interesting here, however, is that, according to the latest 2002 bulletin from the Central Statistical Office, men make up 61.6 percent of the national labour force while women make up 38.4 percent. This would seem to indicate that more men than women should be applying for NHA houses. However, an analysis of the occupation groups reveals that women outnumber men in mid-level jobs, such as service workers, clerks, technicians and associate professionals. This means that, although the labour force participation is skewed in favour of men, more women have the financial wherewithal to get NHA homes.

Somehow, though, Dr Rowley felt impelled to conclude, not only that domestic violence was a leading reason women wanted houses, but that, “Males are not taking responsibility for their families, especially in the East-West corridor.” If Maha Sabha head Sat Maharaj had made the same assertion, he would no doubt have been accused of being racist, since in local political parlance “East-West corridor” is of course a code for “Afro-Trinidadian.” At the very least, Dr Rowley’s statement is a reversal of the stereotype about what kind of man is most likely to beat his spouse. However, a 2002 survey of the two main ethnic groups in this country, carried out by the British firm Market and Opinion Research International (MORI), does bear out at least part of Dr Rowley’s assertion. The MORI survey found that both groups are more or less matched on every social indicator — education levels, civic awareness, financial status — except domestic relationships.

Here, only 28 percent of Afro-Trinidadians are married, as compared to 48 percent of Indo-Trinidadians. Since marriage reflects commitment, Dr Rowley’s assertion about Afro-Trinidadian male irresponsibility may have some broad merit. It is even possible to argue that, since domestic violence is more common among common-law couples than married ones, Dr Rowley’s extrapolation is a reasonable one. However, with only a 12 percent difference among single Afro- and Indo-Trinidadian (with more Indos being in a romantic relationship) the rate of domestic violence between the two groups is probably negligible.

What is definitely not negligible, however, is the fact that domestic violence itself remains a pressing problem in this country. For reasons of history and cultural antecedents, many Trinidadian men still feel that beating their spouses is legitimate. Nor do our social mores help contain this scourge, since the average person considers such matters to be “man and wife business,” while the police are often less than helpful to women who make reports to them. Luckily, these social mores are changing, albeit slowly. That the Government has commissioned a Draft Gender Policy Bill, indicates a fresh concern about the status of women in our country. We hope that the debate on this matter will get underway soon, and a gender policy become an official part of our society.