International Women’s Day Marked by the Jamaica Stock Exchange and Partners
Date:
The Hon. Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, rang the Bell at the Jamaica Stock Exchange to signal the Opening of the Market on March 8, 2021, as a part of the UN Women/IDB/Flow Bell Ringing Ceremony to bring attention to gender equality. This year’s Women’s Day celebration which was celebrated under the theme “Choose to Challenge”, and the UN Women/IDB theme “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World”.
In her welcome, Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, Mrs. Marlene Street Forrest, stated that” During this COVID19 period we run the risk that even some of the gains made for women’s equality are reversed. According to a recent World Bank Study on the differential gender impact in Latin America ‘women have quietly borne the brunt of the crisis and are the most affected in terms of employment and income losses. The current gender gap in labour and education could cost the region fourteen percent of the GDP per capita for the next three decades. I believe that this could well be a proxy for women in Jamaica and as such, concrete action must be taken to ensure this possibility does not become our reality.”
Speaking on behalf of Ambassador Hon. Marianne Van Steen, Ambassador/Head of Delegation of the European Union to Jamaica, Belize, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bahamas and the Cayman Islands; Mr. Richard Bardia Nivins, Head of Cooperation, told the audience: “You already know that in most situations women face a myriad of challenges related to unpaid care work especially within families. Especially during these uncertain times, many women have insufficient funds to invest in the stock market and are more risk averse because they carry the additional burden of the future of their families. As insightful business leaders, you can recognize the overwhelming return on the social investment you make when you promote a woman, even beyond the glass ceiling.”
Ms. Tonni Ann Brodber, representing UN Women Multi-Country Office Caribbean, stated: “In ‘building back equal’ not only do we need to invest more in women, but we also need to have more women in the financial sector, (as Mrs. Street-Forrest said) in decision-making, as entrepreneurs, business leaders, and also as investors. We also need the policies in place that will support this such as universally accessible child and elder-care and increasing sharing of care in households.”