that her organisation was the "vanguard'' when it came to female involvement in trade unions.

Mrs. Bailey was referring to comments made earlier this month by Bermuda Union of Teachers organiser Milton Scott at the conclusion of the Caribbean Union of Teachers conference.

Delegates at the conference, held in Bermuda, placed setting up a committee to help the CUT executive implement strategies to "promote the well being of women'' at the top of a list of resolutions.

And Sen. Scott, in welcoming the resolution, noted the BUT were believed to have "one of the best track records in terms of female involvement''.

"Our executive has roughly been for the past ten years, 50/50 and through no quotas or mandates or anything like that,'' he said. "In some organisations throughout the world like New Zealand, Australia, etc. they have mandated quotas that are only triggered by the fact that there are not X-percentage of females on the international executive.'' While welcoming the BUT and CUT's comments on their roles regarding women's affairs, Mrs. Bailey this week told The Royal Gazette "we would also like to be known as the vanguard in leading the way with trade unions in Bermuda concerning women's affairs''.

She noted that at the 1987 Public Services International (PSI) world congress, an effort began to try to encourage affiliate unions to form women's committees.

As a result of that, Mrs. Bailey said, she returned home and set up a committee within the BPSA the following year.

"Our first public forum on women's affairs was held in 1989,'' she recalled.

"That primarily dealt with violence against women. We also dealt with things like budgeting, housing and child care.

"The forum was received very well and we've just been going ever since.'' The BPSA has five executive women officers, two administrative officers and two clericals in its secretariat, a management committee which is 69 percent female, ten out of its 15 chairpersons of divisional councils are women, and females make up 51 percent of the members on its standing and adhoc committees.

Mrs. Bailey pointed out that the BPSA's women's committee was an affiliate of the Caribbean Public Services Association which includes four women presidents, including herself.

"Each year we send a delegate from our women's committee to the CPSA conference and also our women's committee is very actively involved in members' affairs,'' she said.

Mrs. Bailey also noted that at the CPSA's conference this year a resolution was implemented to have a women's committee put into the CPSA constitution.

"Therefore national affiliate unions are expected to do the same,'' she said.

The CPSA conference also adopted a policy on sexual harassment within the unions.

In addition to being president of the BPSA and the founder of its women's committee, Mrs. Bailey is also a member of the Public Services International Women's Committee and a member of Government Task Force Committee on the Status of Women.

As a representative of the PSI's Women's Advisory Committee for the Caribbean, Mrs. Bailey will attend the Women's Caucus meeting at the 26th World Congress with BPSA general secretary Eugene Blakeney in Japan in November.

She also noted the BPSA's third vice president, Betty Christopher, who is the Caribbean representative for the InterAmerican region of the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI), was attending the First Women's World Congress in Montreal, Canada this month.

Among the union's other achievements with women, Mrs. Bailey said, were a leadership development programme which had 64 percent female participation and its second vice president Golinda Fox representing the union at the PSI InterAmerican Regional Seminar in Argentina last year.