Minister for Women, Rosy Akbar says the best way to start the fight against gender inequality is to start it within our own homes as our children are the best agents of change and their generation must grow up learning respect.
Akbar says many times teaching is left to the education system and the teachers but parents must always fulfill their roles as the first teachers of our children, then maybe we will be able to bring about a generational shift in the mindset.
The Minister highlighted this at the opening of the Women’s Resilience to Disasters consultation and International Women’s Day celebration at GPH.
She further says she has realised that nations, communities, the world and our families have failed our women and girls so it's time to really look at how we see gender equality.
The Minister says a lot of things have been done to fight gender inequality but if we look at the progress we have made, then we have not made much progress.
While launching the consultation on Women’s Resilience to Disasters Programme, Akbar says women's caregiving roles and domestic duties have greatly increased due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Minister has stressed that during lockdown, women and girls have reported having an increased expectations from communities in striving to meet the gender roles with increased domestic work burden compared to men.
She says this is compounded by other ongoing responsibilities such as work, work from home along with establishing study routines for the children.
She adds this year's theme ‘gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’ is very apt and pays homage to the collective efforts of women and girls in addressing the increasing complexities of disaster response and recovery from COVID-19 as well as the greatest challenge of our time, the climate crisis.
