The “glaring” lack of female voices in last month’s immigration protest talks exemplified Bermuda’s gender inequality problem, a charity head has claimed.

“We saw no women present in the lead roles for either side in the negotiations,” said Carol-Ann Simmons, the new executive director of the Women’s Resource Centre.

“The key players in Government were all male, and the key players on the side of the unions were all male.

“While we are seeing some change, such as the increase of women in Senate, we are far from where we should be.”

Although many women participated in five days of demonstrations against the proposed Pathways to Status Bill, the showdown meetings between Government and protest movement leaders were predominantly male. Central figures included Michael Dunkley, the Premier, Minister of Home Affairs Michael Fahy, Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert, the Reverend Nicholas Tweed of the People’s Campaign and former Premier Sir John Swan.

Ms Simmons told The Royal Gazette that the WRC aims to “upset the status quo” after repositioning its focus to gender equality and female empowerment.

The Paget-based charity transferred its services for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence to the Centre Against Abuse last year, in order to prevent unnecessary overlap in the third sector.

Ms Simmons added: “Stepping up the conversation and making meaningful progress on gender equality and the wellbeing and advancement of women is important to the success of every community.

“If you look at businesses around town, you’ll see a woman here and there on corporate boards and senior leadership teams, but you don’t see a well-balanced representation.

“It isn’t about going against men. We seek to work in partnership with men.

“Everything works better when everyone works together, because you have different perspectives, different opinions and more informed decision-making.”

While she expressed excitement about the WRC’s new remit, Ms Simmons acknowledged that the centre needed to address the shortfall after the Government cut its annual funding from $75,000 to nothing.

She said: “We understand the need to cut, and charities must do more to generate revenue themselves, but it is incredibly disappointing.

“We’ll power ahead and look at other funding streams, but I do worry for the third sector in general.”

Ms Simmons also warned against the development of a “dependency culture”, as the Government increases its Financial Assistance budget.

She said: “Cutting the funding of charities, which play a vital role in addressing escalating social issues, only serves to add to the distress among the most vulnerable in the community, as some charities will not be able to continue with much-needed services.

“We must consider that sometimes people on Financial Assistance are also still in need of support from the very charities that are no longer being

funded.”