Tackling gender inequality in Saint Lucia

This article was written by Bynta Ernest, Gender Policy, Division of Gender Affairs, Government of Saint Lucia.

The socio-historical context of gender issues in Saint Lucia

It is not possible to grasp a solid understanding of how the Government of Saint Lucia aims to mainstream gender without an understanding of the country’s post-colonial history — its small island developing state status and its geographical location in the Caribbean. Gender mainstreaming in Saint Lucia must therefore be grounded in its socio-historical context, which we discuss first in this article.

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Saint Lucia is a thriving democracy in the Caribbean, achieving independence from Great Britain only 44 years ago. In 2020, Saint Lucia had an estimated population of around 173,958 persons, an increase from 165,691 from the 2010 census.¹ The island is classified as having high human development, ranking 88^th out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index in 2012. ² Life expectancy is 77.4 years and higher for women (80.2 years) than it is for men (74.7 years). According to the 2010 population and housing census, Catholics make up 61.4% of the country’s population; Seventh-day Adventists, 10.4%; Pentecostals, 8.8%; evangelical Christians, 2.2%; Baptists, 2.1%; and Rastafarians, 2%.³

Development efforts in a small island developing state

As the Government of Saint Lucia focuses on development efforts, its small island status plays a major role in shaping how development plans are conceptualised and operationalised. The island’s smallness means there are limited options available to the country for economic growth. The country has struggled with diversifying its economy, which has been characterised by mono-industries from colonisation to independence, i.e., sugar > bananas > tourism. The situation is further exacerbated by the country’s susceptibility to global economic shocks. The economic impact of climate change can also not be overlooked. One superstorm has the ability to decimate the island’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country — in a matter of hours. Given such a precarious economic reality, Saint Lucia is highly dependent on development assistance from Global North countries and international institutions to fund many of its development initiatives.

**The history to gender equality in Saint Lucia **

In order to support sustainable, equitable and inclusive societies, development initiatives in Saint Lucia must prioritise and centre gender equality. Saint Lucia’s principles of inclusivity can be found in its constitution, which ensures the “Fundamental Rights and Freedoms” of “every person in Saint Lucia…” irrespective of “his or her race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex…” are protected.

Since its independence in 1979, the country has demonstrated its commitment to gender equality via a ‘women in development’ approach with the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1982. CEDAW served as a framework for the establishment of a formal national mechanism for the advancement of women with the creation of the Women’s Desk, which focused on the empowerment of women in Saint Lucian society. Over the past four decades, the Women’s Desk has evolved into the Government of Saint Lucia’s Department of Gender Affairs, which focuses on domestic violence issues given its prevalence in society and cases of abuse primarily perpetrated by men against women. Since 2022, the department has since realised an expansion of its mandate with the introduction of the Gender Focal Point System, which aims at mainstreaming gender within the public service of Saint Lucia.⁴ This new mandate is guided by a Gender in Development (GID) approach, which is primarily focused on how gender norms and consequent social roles between males and females impact development.

Achievements in gender equality in Saint Lucia

Even in the absence of gender mainstreaming, there have been several gains for women and girls in Saint Lucia. Both boys and girls have equal access to free education from age 5 to 15.⁵ Girls actually outperform boys at all levels of the education system.⁶ Access to education and taking advantage of this access, among other factors, can be seen to directly correlate to women’s participation in the workforce. Data from the Central Statistics Office, as presented by the 2015 International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) report Gender at Work in the Caribbean, revealed the majority of people in the labour force with post-secondary and tertiary education in Saint Lucia are women. Saint Lucian women are also known to occupy a high number of management positions in the labour force. The often-quoted 2015 ILO report noted that Saint Lucia was one of the top three countries in the world where your manager is likely to be a woman.⁷

The country has also enacted one of the most progressive domestic violence acts in the region. The Domestic Violence Act of 2022, provides an expanded definition of violence, to not only include physical violence, but also economic and psychological violence. The Act also offers protection to persons who belong to a host of relationships namely “… married under any law, custom or religion; (b) are or were cohabitants; are family members related by consanguinity, affinity or adoption; dating or visiting relationship…”.⁸

Gender equality challenges remain

Despite these notable achievements in the quest to achieve gender equality in Saint Lucia, numerous challenges persist.

Domestic violence remains pervasive in society. While prevalence data is unavailable for Saint Lucia, comparative data in the region reveals that about 46% of women have experienced some sort of violence within a domestic setting.⁹

A closer examination of the data on female managers illuminates the sobering reality that women in Saint Lucia are not owners of the medium-sized enterprises they manage, nor do they occupy senior managerial positions. Women are most likely to manage small to micro-enterprises¹⁰, some of which form part of the informal/irregular sector. These are factors that contribute to Saint Lucia’s gender pay gap.

Women also remain underrepresented in the country’s highest legislative and decision-making body. Only 11.1% of women are members of the House of Assembly, where only two women have been elected to the 17-member house. Six women have been nominated (including the President of the Senate) to the 11-member Senate.^11,12

The gender movement’s foundation is grounded in the women’s rights movement. This explains why gender initiatives have a primary focus on women’s and girls’ issues. However, gender is a topic of concern for all in our society. A focus on the issues men and boys face needs to be considered and included in gender initiatives. In the Caribbean, interpersonal violence and road traffic accidents are among the top 10 leading causes of death among males.¹³ Though data is not readily available for Saint Lucia, anecdotal evidence supports this. Primarily because these two causes of death happen within the public domain, they resonate loudly due to their negative societal impact.

**Addressing national perceptions to advance gender mainstreaming **

At times, challenges in achieving gender equality can seem daunting and insurmountable. The Saint Lucian government is committed to overcoming these challenges and is committed to the protection and promotion of the rights of its citizens. Its commitment to such rights is reflected in the development, revision and enactment of appropriate laws and the development of complementary policies and programmes that support gender equality. Saint Lucia’s public service is guided by a rights-based and gender-equality ethos, which is predicated on an understanding of gender and how to incorporate the concept of equality into its work programmes. There is, however, a dearth of local and international expertise in gender. A crucial step in mainstreaming gender within the public service in Saint Lucia is to develop robust knowledge and capacity-building initiatives. These initiatives aim to demystify the concept of gender, enhance the capacity of public servants, and formulate policies and programmes that are sufficiently gender-sensitive and responsive.

Men, women, girls and boys all bear the burdens of a gender unequal society and we can all work together to harness the benefits gender equality endeavours to provide.

However, a number of perceptions regarding gender and gender equality currently exist, which must first be acknowledged and appropriately addressed as they can be roadblocks to successfully mainstreaming gender within the public service and beyond. These perceptions are as follows:

Perception 1: The term ‘gender’ and its connotations
The international/Global North discourse on gender identity and expression and its association with the LGBTQI community has resulted in the term “gender” being automatically associated with LGBTQI community issues. In Saint Lucia, sentiments around these issues are not regarded positively. These beliefs are not new and are reflected in Saint Lucia’s laws where some exceptions to the protections accorded to citizens exist. The formalisation of gender norms through codification has resulted in the criminalisation of behaviour which does not fall within the range of acceptance in Saint Lucia. For example, the Buggery Act, which criminalises same-sex intercourse. This act is a product of Saint Lucia’s colonial past, with its origins in England in 1533. While England has since repealed the Act,¹⁴ it remains in Saint Lucia despite international calls for repeal.¹⁵ Though not enforced, its staying power reflects Saint Lucia’s Judeo-Christian values and consequent perceptions of gender. Secular or public service leaders engaging stakeholders from faith-based positions on gender equality issues is not guaranteed to be positively received, bearing in mind the current landscape where “Faith-based organisations (FBOs) continue to struggle with the issue of theology and affirming sexual diversity.”¹⁶

Action required:
Partnerships with gender and social inclusion human rights activists with both a Caribbean and faith-based grounding are essential. These people possess the requisite access, and social and spiritual capital necessary for engagement¹⁷ by having the ability to bridge the gap between the secular and religious sectors on gender equality issues. The insight and perspective these activists possess are invaluable to the advancement of gender equality due to their ability to guide and advise on the development of appropriate strategies for engagement with these stakeholders.

Perception 2: Suspicions about the Global North and imposed gender initiatives
Taking into account Saint Lucia’s historical colonial context and the continued dominance of the Global North, suspicions about Global North countries and international institutions’ interventions in the region are rife. Many local populations are of the view that contemporary “…development efforts are a neo-colonial project of modernity…”.¹⁸ These suspicions extend to Global North-funded and led initiatives on gender. Many local stakeholders regard such initiatives as imposed, reflecting the realities of the Global North and externally-driven processes, rather than that of the Saint Lucian/Caribbean context. This notion is linked to the previous perception regarding gender and its association with the LGBTQI community. Some other topics likely to cause disagreement or debate include the gender pay gap and women’s economic empowerment.

Action required:
Saint Lucia is a data-poor country and in many instances, the arguments against gender are not steeped in facts. Several of these arguments are sometimes emotionally charged, based on citizens’ personal belief systems and are anecdotal at best. In order to counter these arguments, it is essential to use existing research and data to demonstrate that gender inequities still exist in Saint Lucia and that areas of concern perceived as Global North phenomena are indeed relevant to the Saint Lucian context. Special focus should be placed on research conducted by Saint Lucian researchers to demonstrate the results are not tainted with a Global North bias. We must also shed light on the fact that there are still many women who are ‘invisibilised’; elderly women, women with disabilities, rural women and women from certain ethnic groups whom these interventions are aiming to assist.

Perception 3: Gender equality has already been achieved
The perception that gender equality has been achieved is rather common due to the high visibility of women in educational institutions, managerial positions, etc. In light of the perceived attainment of gender equality in Saint Lucia, a common concern expressed is that gender initiatives focus too much on women and are therefore seen only as a women and girls issue at the exclusion of the issues men and boys experience.

Action required:
The origin of gender has been studied and largely theorised by women, who naturally have centred women in their research and interventions. As a result, some legitimacy exists concerning the exclusion of the issues of men and boys in gender work. While not negating the issues which women continue to face, we must ensure gender work is inclusive of men and boys. This has been expressed at the international level, as is seen in the 2004 “UN Commission on the Status of Women Conclusions on the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality”.¹⁹ We must foster a greater understanding of the current gender issues faced by men, women, girls and boys.

Building knowledge of how and why men and boys present themselves in society in the manner they do is a prerequisite to ensuring policy development for men and boys is not reactive. Developing a men and masculinities course for public servants is highly recommended to explore the origin of masculinity, how it is defined and how it is expressed. The course should further demonstrate the societal impact of both positive and negative masculine expression as “It is necessary to scientifically view men and to study their attitudes in the process of manipulating power mechanisms and the traumas they have suffered by playing these roles”.²⁰

Conclusion

Understanding the socio-historical context of Saint Lucia; its post-colonial history, small island developing state status and its geographical location in the Caribbean, is essential to the gender mainstreaming initiatives being developed in the country. Saint Lucia is a democracy committed to the principles of gender equality, but like many countries, a number of gaps exist which can be further hampered by perceptions of gender that can often impede any positive shifts in the direction of gender equality. However, through strategic planning, the Government of Saint Lucia aims to develop objectives and formulate appropriate strategies to address issues in gender equality in the country. Men, women, girls and boys all bear the burdens of a gender unequal society and we can all work together to harness the benefits gender equality endeavours to provide.

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