Parliamentary Secretary for Women's Issues, Grace Bell , kicked off the debate on the Report of the Task Force on Women's Issues in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The task force had broad community representation for its task of reviewing and assessing the status of women in Bermuda and recommending necessary legislative changes, policy initiatives and programmes, she said.

These task force members gave freely of their expertise and looked at eight areas: Employment and Business Activities; Decision Making Positions in the Community; Marriage, Divorce and Family; Domestic Violence and Child Abuse; Educational Opportunities and Career Training; Involvement in Crime; Health and Fitness and Child Care and After School Care.

From these areas it identified 190 recommendations, said Ms Bell.

Although this might seem overwhelming, she noted, many of these had been acted on including enacting legislation to protect women from domestic violence and stalking.

The Ministry was also working hard to implement other recommendations.

However it was important to note that change could only be made when the community was educated, stressed Ms Bell.

"We must educate women so they feel protected and know they can come forward and have their needs addressed. Women need to be brave enough to come forward and challenge.'' Amongst its discoveries, the task force found that "women have made great strides in recent times but still have serious problems that need to be addressed to benefit women and society at large''.

Maternity leave was a concern of the task force as sometimes it was unavailable in jobs because employers were not required to provide it.

Employees had even been dismissed for getting pregnant, she pointed out.

The task force recommended that Government mandate a scale of minimum maternity benefits which employers could follow.

She added that women were starting to complain about sexual harassment in the workplace but others had left their jobs rather than complain.

All businesses were now encouraged to set up policies to deal with the problem and a model policy was being set up for businesses to base these on.

Another concern was that women earned less than men at every level of educational attainment, said Ms Bell, although they made up 53 percent of the work force.

Government was looking at ways to ensure that people did not receive less pay on the basis of their gender.

The task force also called for Government to establish accreditation for mammography equipment.

Better equipment would help save more lives, pointed out Ms Bell.

Turning to statistics, she noted that between 1982 and 1992, 313 people were under treatment for breast cancer and 127 died. Between 1993 and 1997 there were 222 cases of breast cancer and 27 deaths.

With aggressive treatment and early diagnosis, she continued, more lives could be saved.

She suggested that Government invest in radiation therapy equipment for the Island so people did not have to travel overseas for treatment.

Part of the treatment and prevention aspect was the education of people to encourage early detection, she added. Ms Bell praised the TB Cancer and Health Association for the work they had done in this area.

The task force also called for regulations governing nurseries and day care centres to be brought up to date.

Ms Bell said the Minister responsible for this area was currently looking into it.

And the task force said a Code of Practice should be developed with guidelines to help employers eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace. A draft code was set to be distributed, she added.

"The women of the country should be able to challenge these unfair practises, and hopefully this will encourage employers to get with it and pay women what they are worth.'' And Ms Bell called on Government to ask the United Nations to extend its Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to cover the Island.

On the subject of education, she continued, all resource materials should be printed in Portuguese. The Ministry had asked groups to bring their material in and some had done so already.

This material was being translated and when this process ended, the material would be returned to the groups for printing and distribution.

Other recommendations mentioned by Ms Bell included: Developing a community round table on violence; forming a domestic violence response team in the Police Service; extending the operating hours of Government health clinics to provide better service to working women; and educating people dealing with cases of domestic violence so they would be able to handle them more sensitively.

Shadow Minister for Women's Issues Lois Browne-Evans began the Opposition's reply stating: "I find it strange that after 33 years in Parliament we have devoted time to a take note motion called task force on women.

"I would have hoped that since women invaded these parts in 1948, 50 years later we would have passed legislation to eradicate some of the things that are here.'' She noted that Paget East MP Kim Young chaired the task force and found a lot of shortcomings as she prepared the report.

The committee suffered from a shortage of funds while Government wasted money in other areas, she said.

She added that she hoped Ms Young still had those types of remarks to make now that she was in the UBP.

Ms Browne-Evans said she would be watching to see what Ms Young did with the "big stick'' she now wielded.

Turning to the report, she said: "If Bermuda can succeed to get equal pay for equal work, I will be pleased.'' She added that she would not speak on the take note motion for long. "I want to hear the men of this House stand up and be counted.'' And she said she wanted to hear what was gong to be done about the 190 recommendations in the report. This alone showed the problems women faced had been left for too long.

On day care centres, Ms Browne-Evans said: "I am at a loss to understand why we have not had nine day care centres, one in each parish, yet.'' This showed that the UBP Government was a "piecemeal'', "ad hoc'' Government because these problems that women faced rested squarely on its shoulders.

Shadow Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Paula Cox said that the report was really about "trying to level the playing field''.

"We don't want women to be marginalised,'' she said. "We want them to be integrated into the mainstream of Bermuda's society.'' Ms Cox also said that the issue of equal pay was not just limited to professional women.

"It is for all levels, black men, the disabled, all those who have an impediment,'' she said. "Women's issues are about inclusion and fair play.'' And she pointed out that women's issues had a great impact on society.

"When we talk of women's issues we are talking about the community.'' Ms Cox suggested that the Government to take a good look at the 190 recommendations and prioritise them.

But she said unless the government was willing to put some money into women's issues, the report would be useless.

"Unless there is a sincere commitment to apply some funding to get this going,'' she said, "It's just going to be another report.'' However, UBP backbencher John Barritt argued that money was not the panacea to every the problem.

"Money is not the solution to the problem,'' Mr. Barritt said. "There is no cure alone when it comes to human relations.'' Mr. Barritt suggested that education was the "route to go''.

But Shadow Human Affairs Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said that if the Government did not provide funds for an issue, than "historically'' they were not "interested'' in it.

How serious is the Government about this?'' he asked. "Or is this just window dressing? "Government gave no money for this report.'' Dr. Brown also expressed concern about the omission of the role race plays in gender discrimination.

Earlier in the debate, Ms Cox argued that the issue of gender was "underpinned by racial issues''.

"What concerns me is how can you establish gender discrimination and not spend any time on the races in the gender,'' Dr. Brown said. "How did race get left out of this widespread, far-reaching report?'' And he called the omission a serious one which could not be ignored when discussing social issues in Bermuda.

"It is a factor that has to be dealt with,'' he added.

Continued in Monday's newspaper