should be celebrated with greater efforts towards real equality.

That was the view of members of the Senate during yesterday's debate on including more women in politics.

Sen. Norma Astwood (Ind.) moved: "That the Senate take note of the need for Parliament to integrate the perspectives of women into mainstream political issues.'' During a 75-minute speech Sen. Astwood went into the history of the movement for women's rights in Bermuda.

She said: "My aim in bringing this motion is to encourage women to fulfil their aims and to give emphatic and positive recognition to those women who choose to work outside the home.

"Bermuda's Parliament includes nine women, or 17.6 percent, of the parliamentary group representing Bermuda. That is a disproportionate gender representation of men and women. Fifty one and a half percent of Bermuda's population is made up of women.'' Sen. Astwood said that Bermuda was seeing a surge in the way women are reacting to the way they have been treated. She added that ideals have changed; children were being brought up by parents who themselves were children of hippies and beatniks.

The Independent Senator was not surprised that many young people were trying to overcome situations which did not suit them.

And, she added: "Women could bring Bermuda to a standstill, by not turning up for work or not looking after the children.'' Quoting 1991 Census figures, she said 48 percent of the workforce, outside of the home, are women and 53 percent of all jobs in professional and technical occupations are filled by women.

However, apart from Government Ministries and departments, there were few women in high managerial positions in the Island's business-world.

Sen. Astwood called for more programmes for young girls to enhance their chances and these qualities should be passed on early in life, when they were "ripe to learn the developmental skills that will take them forward into adulthood''.

She pointed out the average wage for women on the Island was $22,400 per year compared to a male average of $31,500 per annum.

Moving on to sexual harassment, Sen. Astwood said: "We have not had much of an outcry about sexual harassment because many people are embarrassed to come forward to report it. Any type of physical or non-physical violence is an abuse of power.

"Men have a much more narrow definition of what sexual harassment is than women have. It is a form of control relegating women to a social position.'' She added that many women are forced to yield to sexual harassment fearing they might be fired or, in the home, they may have their children taken away from them.

Sen. Astwood said she felt an element of disgust if a butcher called her "love'' and said she would tell him so.

Adding to the history lesson in Senate was Sen. Yvette Swan (UBP) who pointed out that women proved they had power in the past when they refused to pay tax between 1929 and 1944 when they got the vote.

Sen. Swan said: "The United Bermuda Party Government views women as a very important entity to our Country and encourages them to feel free to be active in political organisations, parties and trade unions.'' In comparison to other countries, the percentage of female parliamentarians in Bermuda looks good. The 27 percent in the House of Assembly compared with nine percent in the United Kingdom, five percent in Jamaica, 6.4 percent in the United States and 6.7 percent in Australia. However in the Batlic states 38 percent of Finland's parliament are women, 35.8 percent of Norway's and 35 percent of Sweden's house of representatives.

Sen. Swan said: "I feel it's time to take the bull by the horns. This was definitely demonstrated by the Business and Professional Womens' Association of Bermuda who crashed the male dynasty of the Corporation of Hamilton in getting a woman to infiltrate the concrete door of City Hall.'' Around 80 percent of Bermudian women work outside the home while the international average is more like 30 percent. Sen. Swan called for more nursery and day care facilities to help those women who have children.

She said: "I would hate to see the day when mothers will have to chose between their children and staying in their job.

"Some employers should be discouraged from feeling they cannot promote women better qualified than men because they may be leaving to have children.

"It is also important that we, the adult women of this country, make ourselves available as mentors for our younger women. Many young women would like to come to us to ask us questions.'' Sen. Alf Oughton (Ind.) said if the role of women in society is to improve, it must be through education.

Sen. Oughton said: "Concerning sexual harassment in the workplace, we are all aware that this has most probably been around for may years and it needs to be addressed. Women, and men, do find themselves in this situation.'' He added that a perfect vehicle to improve the situation for women would be the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs' plans for a code of practice.

Admitting he did not understand the topic as well as his female counterparts, Sen. Lawrence Scott (UBP) said: "More women are being trained at a tertiary level than are men.

"What men should be aware of is that in the future most positions will be filled by women because they are training themselves better than us.

"I would not discourage this natural pursuit by women but I think many of the things that we now consider to be offensive are matters that are going to disappear in the future.

"It is important that men in this situation do not feel uncomfortable about the empowerment of women. It is all part of racial empowerment and gender empowerment. It is a way of rationalising the situation that my generation never dreamed of.'' Sen. Milton Scott (PLP) believed the introduction of women into the House of Assembly and the Senate will bring a broader perspective to political life.

Sen. Scott said that in Hamilton sidewalks and buildings have been redesigned to make allowances for the physically challenged. He said: "But we do not see the barriers that impede women. They need to be broken down quicker than they have in the past.

"How can our institutions get more involved? Children need to be taught and introduced to far more role models. Their stories need to be told to young people especially to young females.'' He also stressed the importance of the Church which should increase its involvement in helping women.

Sen. Scott said he had heard of two experiences where women had lost their jobs because they had been involved in the General Election in October.

One of those women was Sen. Neletha Butterfield (PLP), who was next to speak, about women trailblazers providing women with the rights they have today, and will celebrate during next year's anniversary.

Sen. Butterfield said: "Women must be judged on their ability and not by their gender. Their ability to produce as well as their ability to reproduce.

"They are now doing jobs that people used to think only men could do. Women are moving in all the way through the workforce.

"They are the backbones of religious organisations, the backbones of community organisations and in the forefront of many issues.'' Sen. Butterfield added that Bermuda's women need a place where they can sit down and discuss issues that affect them and how to deal with them.

She said: "The power that women have today is strong and can be used.

CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN EXAMINED "What would happen if women banded together to demonstrate on a Friday? It would be a catastrophe.

"The time has come to integrate many issues facing women as we move towards the 21st Century.'' Minister of the Environment the Hon. Gerald Simons said more women should be involved in politics and politicians should be more aware of women's needs.

He said: "When the history of the 20th Century is written one of the features will be the changed role of women. Up to the beginning of the 20th Century they were treated as second class citizens.'' The challenge women faced today related to their "dual role,'' which combined their traditional jobs as caregivers and homemakers with their greater involvement in society and politics.

Traditionally, girls were raised to work in the home while boys took care of animals and did other outside chores, Mr. Simons said. Today, there was less to do outside the home, but few parents encouraged boys to do more work inside.

Unless that changed, the expectation among men that women should do household chores would be perpetuated, and unfair pressures on women would continue.

The only positive aspect of the situation, which was also ironic, was that the very organisational and mediation skills girls learned in the home were the skills that business looked for, Sen. Simons said.

Girls performed better in schools than boys did, Mr. Simons noted. All of Bermuda suffered when any group felt it was not realising its potential, and if it was not for progress by blacks, Bermuda's international business and tourism would not be what it is today.

Men should not resist the progress, but "cling to the skirt-tails of women and be dragged ahead'', and encourage women to realise their potential so everyone benefited. In the first instance, women were responsible for realising their own potential, but all individuals, companies, organisations, and political parties also had a role to play.

Sen. Grant Gibbons (UBP) said he agreed with Delegated Affairs Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto that women's issues were Bermuda's issues, but it was true that women were more affected by them and had a better understanding.

The perspective of women could be better integrated through direct representation, lobbying, and education by assuring Parliamentarians saw issues from the perspective of women.

Government Senate Leader the Hon. Michael Winfield said Sen. Astwood had served Bermuda well, not just in Bermuda but on the international scene, mainly through Commonwealth politics.

Only when people stopped discriminating on the basis of gender, race, and other irrelevant distinctions "can we claim to have evolved as a species'', Sen. Winfield said.

Parliamentarians had to welcome women to their ranks, he said. The recent United Bermuda Party Blueprint, now the Government Plan, showed "we abhor any kind of discrimination, any kind of prejudice'', he said.

"This is no longer a man's world,'' I hope this is a human being's world.

Women are now equal.'' Senate President the Hon. Albert Jackson commended Sen.

Astwood for her motion and said the major responsibility and concern of Parliament was to enact legislation.

He noted the Bermuda Constitution Act 1968 and the Bermuda Human Rights Act 1981 both outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex.

The laws set the parameters, but support for the spirit of the laws "rests firmly in the hearts of men'', using the word "men'' in the broad sense that included women, Sen. Jackson said.

In response, Sen. Astwood said she was encouraged by the Senators' comments, and "I look forward to seeing the implementation of your wishes.'' She warned that Sen. Simons' comment about skirt-tails, while well-intended, was "a form of harassment,'' and such comments could be taken out of context and abused.

The progress of women did not need to develop into a contest between women and men, she said. The two sexes should move forward together.

If the Senate could integrate the views of women into mainstream issues, "we will have done the task for which we've been hired by the people of this Country''.

Sen. Norma Astwood.

The Hon. Gerald Simons.