THE MONTHLY GLEANER | MARCH 12 - APRIL 11, 2026 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 8 “THIS INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day, we join the global community in advancing the UN Women global theme for International Women’s Day 2026, ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.’ The call challenges us not only to acknowledge inequities but to take decisive action. It reminds us that the pursuit of justice requires bold steps — through our mentorship, advocacy, knowledge, and resources — to help transform the systems that shape women’s lives. Since its founding, The University of the West Indies has stood firmly for gender equality. For over seven decades, our Caribbean women leaders — many of whom are UWI scholars, students, and alumni — have shaped the region through service, leadership, and activism. This unwavering commitment is reflected institutionally as well. The UWI Gender Policy formalises our dedication to gender justice, and gender mainstreaming stands proudly as a core value in our 2022–2027 Triple A Strategic Plan. In addition to embedding gender equality and justice across all areas of our operations, The UWI advances these values through our academic mission. Beyond the longstanding leadership of The UWI Institute for Gender and Development Studies, our new International School for Development Justice (ISDJ) expands the University’s offerings in this vital area. Among its flagship programmes is the online Master’s in Gender Justice, Activism, and Sustainable Development — designed to prepare a new generation of advocates and practitioners committed to promoting justice and equality across the Caribbean and the wider world. As we honour the enduring legacy of our Caribbean women and their transformative contributions, we are reminded that progress requires action — action that strengthens justice systems, challenges harmful norms, and creates the conditions for real equality. When women succeed, our University and our region also succeed. This year’s theme calls us to follow their example: to stand up for the rights of all women and girls, to work toward justice that protects and empowers, and to take action that ensures equality is lived, not promised. In doing so, we uplift not only individuals but the future of our Caribbean civilisation. When women rise, we all rise. Let us continue, together, to build a just and inclusive world.” VICE-CHANCELLOR, PROFESSOR SIR HILARY BECKLES The University of the West Indies (The UWI) “IN HER 2002 delivery of the Lucille Mathurin Mair Distinguished Lecture, hosted by the then Centre for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus,the late Guyanese activist, Andaiye, situated her journey to activism as follows:“race/ethnicity/ colour; class; nation; gender; age: from childhood I could feel – if not understand –their interaction in my life. And this is how I came to politics.” The indivisibility of the personal from activist politics animates so many stories shared by women movement makers, across space and time, in our Caribbean. This is true of women activists, past and present. Deep personal investments often accompany Caribbean women’s engagement in actions to shift conditions of inequality. Recently, at a gathering of women’s organisations in Jamaica, Judith Wedderburn, co-founder of WMW, Jamaica (formerly Women’s Media Watch), reflected on the emergence of the organisation. According to Wedderburn, WMW’s official office began in the trunk of her car, with meetings held at her home in the early days. The personal has always tangibly figured in how Caribbean activist women show up for each other, and for their communities.Another such example is that of the Grenada Community Development Agency (GRENCODA). In terms of its longevity and reach, GRENCODA remains one of the most impactful community-based organisations in the region. Its late visionary leader, Judy Williams, bequeathed a legacy of service,movement-building and civil society–government partnerships, at the national and regional levels. It was during her leadership that GRENCODA supported the formation of the invaluable Legal Aid and Counselling Clinic (LACC) and a national youth training agency (both in Grenada) and, at the regional level, the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC). Women’s organising in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region has always existed at the intersection of the formative, personal, intimate, shared, and in relation to those arrangements which abound in our political economy. Stories of partnership for change, among women, are observable in the emergence of entities like Sistren Theatre Collective (Jamaica), Red Thread (Guyana) Productive Organisation for Women (POWA) (Belize), Red Roots SVG, (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Helen’s Daughters (St. Lucia), Intersect (Antigua and Barbuda), and the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) (Trinidad and Tobago). Our regional umbrella organising for gender and social justice, from the 1980s onwards, has seen the formation of pan-Caribbean Community organisations like the Caribbean Association of Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) and the Caribbean Domestic Workers Network (CDWN). These organisations, their membership and their leadership, provide a critical body of knowledge and approaches for engaging advocacy and activism in our Caribbean. In fact, regional women movement makers are central to creating and sustaining teaching, learning, research and outreach at The UWI’s Institute for Gender and Development Studies and the University of Guyana’s Institute for Gender Studies. It is for this reason that women activists in the academy remain connected as partners and as members of women’s organisations across the region. Further, women’s organising in churches; political parties; service, social and sporting clubs; workers’unions; business; communities; families; as well as the critical contribution of women in brokering safety in conflict-ridden settings, too often go unacknowledged. These arrangements sustain communities and societies. Even with the tensions, trials and challenges that exist in building these networks, the tremendous love and affective engagements needed to sustain organising and organisations deserve much more than periodic recognition. We ought to learn how our activists come to politics, what sustains them, and what is at stake if we ignore these inheritances. With the escalation of geopolitical tensions in several regions of the world, including in our Caribbean, what lessons from our women movement makers might we draw? Perhaps the most obvious, but certainly not the only lesson, is the power of reckoning with our positionality, in order to build strategic alliances grounded in love, respect and a deep desire for wider futures. The global theme prioritised for International Women’s Day (IWD) and Women’s Herstory Month(WHM), in 2026, invites us to advance “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.” None have been more generous than our Caribbean women movement makers. None is more deserving of our generosity in return. Let us commit to honouring Caribbean women, across various spheres of influence, with our thoughts, with our voices and with our actions in this year and beyond. Their signal contribution provides the foundation on which we continue to organise to secure gender,racial, economic and social justice for all in our region.” DR. HALIMAH DESHONG University Director Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) Advancing rights, justice, and action for all women and girls Professor Sir Hilary Beckles INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2026 “And this is how I came to politics” Dr Halimah DeShong Honouring Caribbean women movement makers
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