GENDER EQUALITY IN THE BAHAMAS

The Gender Equality Bills that were just passed in the Bahamas House of Assembly (they still have to be voted on in the Senate though) brings to mind my own experience in the British work place when I left school at sixteen. I desperately wanted to work in a local newspaper as a reporter. I was willing to work from the bottom up, covering boring (to me) assignments like flower shows, until I could graduate to more challenging stories. However, the leading newspaper in my town only took on young men as trainee reporters at that time.

I trained as a secretary instead, but never gave up my dream of becoming a writer. Fortunately, after working for a year as a secretary, a great opportunity arose. Two journalists came to town and opened a news agency. They advertised for a Girl Friday/trainee reporter, I applied and got the job. And the journalists were men! Also, I got to go to journalism day release classes at the local college where I was the only female, along with the young male reporters from the local newspaper that wouldn’t take me on!