In an effort to improve relations between the sexes and to rectify gender imbalances, government has created the Virgin Islands’ first National Policy for Gender Equity and Equality.
“The vision behind a national gender policy is to bring the population to a point of acceptance of their sexual difference, and at the same time to acknowledge that this particular difference does not provide the basis for discrimination or an ideology of inequality,” the policy states.
The 98-page document sets out government’s plan for creating a more “gender just society,” with 32 recommendations for updating laws as well as new health, education and labour programmes.
According to an executive summary, the policy “does not advocate for cosmetic change in this or that ministry or agency, or for a numbers game in gender and leadership, but aims for a deeply embedded transformation of ideas and practices.”
See the Aug. 15, 2013 edition for full coverage.