Gender Equality
Problem: The instance of poverty is much higher among women. Specifically, the women that are the heads of their households. Women get paid less, have greater difficulty acquiring credit, and own less property than men in the same field of work. Also, there are not many women in positions where they can influence decisions based on salary, wages, credit, and other economic areas.
Cause: Much of the cause of this problem is rooted in the ingrained gender roles of Guyanese society. Women's "roles" have traditionally been in the home, preparing meals, and raising children, NOT in the workforce. Because of these social stigmas, women are kept at the base of the economic pyramid in Guyana and continue to be oppressed into staying there to maintain their "gender roles" despite the fact that more and more women are forced to work to provide for their families.
Solution: One solution is for the government to have to meet a certain percentage of female representation on their decision making committees. For example, the same percentage of women in the workforce during that economic time would be represented on these committees. This could be made an important priority for the Guyanese government by rewarding them money or debt-forgiveness for every woman that is placed on the committee. The money could come from The World Bank or the IMF which Guyana is already involved in. The timeline for this would be 5 years to see if the incentive was enough to make legislators appoint women to these positions. We could measure the success of this solution by comparing salary, credit accessed, and property owned by women compared to men every 6 months of those 5 years.
Cause: Much of the cause of this problem is rooted in the ingrained gender roles of Guyanese society. Women's "roles" have traditionally been in the home, preparing meals, and raising children, NOT in the workforce. Because of these social stigmas, women are kept at the base of the economic pyramid in Guyana and continue to be oppressed into staying there to maintain their "gender roles" despite the fact that more and more women are forced to work to provide for their families.
Solution: One solution is for the government to have to meet a certain percentage of female representation on their decision making committees. For example, the same percentage of women in the workforce during that economic time would be represented on these committees. This could be made an important priority for the Guyanese government by rewarding them money or debt-forgiveness for every woman that is placed on the committee. The money could come from The World Bank or the IMF which Guyana is already involved in. The timeline for this would be 5 years to see if the incentive was enough to make legislators appoint women to these positions. We could measure the success of this solution by comparing salary, credit accessed, and property owned by women compared to men every 6 months of those 5 years.
Problem: There is an alright amount of medical clinics in the main cities in Guyana. However, in many of the rural or poverty-stricken areas, there are very few clinics. To add to this, the amount of maternally focused clinics is even less. This severely limits the amount of prenatal care, care during birth, and after birth care that women in these areas can receive.
Cause: A lot of this problem is caused by the inaccessibility of the rural villages. The dense forests surrounding many of these villages makes it very difficult and impractical to build roads and, in effect, medical clinics, closer to the villages. The inaccessibility not only effects the efforts of people trying to get to the villages, but also the pregnant women, trying to get to the care they need. In each instance, care is not being received by expectant mothers and creating a problem in infant mortality rates for Guyana.
Solution: A solution to this problem could be to raise funds through the Red Cross to build the roads and women's medical clinics needed to provide the women the care they need throughout pregnancy and after the births of their infants. The timeline of this solution could be over 10 years. It would be measured by how many women's health medical clinics were built in rural or impoverished areas and by infant mortality rates compared year to year over the period of 10 years. This solution would give infants a much greater chance at survival because their mothers' will be healthier and taken better care of before and after birth.
Cause: A lot of this problem is caused by the inaccessibility of the rural villages. The dense forests surrounding many of these villages makes it very difficult and impractical to build roads and, in effect, medical clinics, closer to the villages. The inaccessibility not only effects the efforts of people trying to get to the villages, but also the pregnant women, trying to get to the care they need. In each instance, care is not being received by expectant mothers and creating a problem in infant mortality rates for Guyana.
Solution: A solution to this problem could be to raise funds through the Red Cross to build the roads and women's medical clinics needed to provide the women the care they need throughout pregnancy and after the births of their infants. The timeline of this solution could be over 10 years. It would be measured by how many women's health medical clinics were built in rural or impoverished areas and by infant mortality rates compared year to year over the period of 10 years. This solution would give infants a much greater chance at survival because their mothers' will be healthier and taken better care of before and after birth.