The founder of a new grassroots women's group claims it is already drawing considerable interest from the public.

"I've had quite a few letters and e-mails already from women in the community,'' said Delcina Bean-Burrows, chairman of the Women's Policy Committee (WPC).

The committee now has ten active members including Dr. Terry Lynn Emery, who was the first female obstetrician in Bermuda and school psychologist Dr.

Barbara Holder.

The committee is asking women in the community to contact them "about their thoughts, perceptions and experiences pertaining to opportunities and barriers toward obtaining their total well-being in Bermuda,'' Ms Bean-Burrows wrote in an open letter to The Royal Gazette .

The input is being sought to assist the WPC in drafting its first five policy statements.

"Many respondents are bringing to our attention things that they feel are barriers to their advancement,'' she said. And the group has also been contacted about gender bias and discrimination concerns, sexual harassment, equal pay considerations, domestic violence and even issues of religious freedom.

Ms Bean-Burrows said she sees the new committee as a "clearing house'' rather than a "watchdog organisation'' or a competitor with established women's groups like the Women's Resource Centre.

She said that when her group is contacted about matters that would clearly fall within the mandates of another organisation, while they would compile the information for their own use, they would also direct the person to the correct organisation to deal with their concerns.

"Our mission statement -- towards the continued holistic advancement of women in Bermudian society -- is somewhat different from other organisations,'' she said.

Penny Dill, director of the Women's Resourse Centre, said that while she was not completely familiar with what Ms Bean-Burrows is doing, she was not concerned about overlap at this point.

And as the group is a completely volunteer-driven committee at this stage, Ms Bean-Burrows does not anticipate it will be competing with other women's groups for charitable donations.

"We don't see ourselves going to the point of being a full out charity needing massive fund raisers,'' she said, although the WPC might seek sponsors in order to undertake studies on women's issues.

If necessary they will seek registered charity status, she said, but at this point they are trying "to be a modern but economical committee here''.

To that end, the group is using e-mail and a post office box as contact points rather than establishing an office.

And while Ms Bean-Burrows said the committee hopes to produce statements on women's issues and possibly conduct research that they would present to Government, the Opposition and any other group interested in their findings, they are not a Government committee nor do they seek to be. It is not their intention to replace the Women's Advisory Council which was absorbed last year by the Bermuda Family Council.

"We are completely non-partisan,'' she said. "We don't want this committee to become political. If women advance in Bermudian society, then the society advances -- that's all we want.'' But she feels the need for studies into women's issues is noticeable. "It's a big problem in Bermuda that we identify problems but aren't very good at quantifying them by scientific method,'' she said. "That is one thing this group will strive for. We want to make headway in research for community development but until we understand the issues and have numbers to support them, it'll just be talk.'' "Barriers to the advancement of women tend to be multifaceted,'' she added.

"Bermuda tends to be sophisticated in terms of technology but we are still in the Dark Ages in many of our attitudes.'' And she feels that changing attitudes will be a matter of raising awareness of women's issues and looking for homegrown solutions rather than legislation.

"Once we identify barriers, we can brainstorm and try to come up with ideas on how to break them.''