by TRACY MOORE

THE PACE OF PROGRESS for women in decision-making positions has been too slow.

Minister of Family Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo made the remarks yesterday at the 2007 Barbados Employers' Confederation (BEC) Census Of The Women Board Directors Round-Table Discussion held at its new headquarters on Deighton Road, St Michael.

The round-table discussion commemorates International Women's Day 2008 which is celebrated today under the theme Shaping Progress.

"Women's achievements are all too often invisible and unacknowledged," she said. "More still needs to be done to accelerate the inclusion of women in other formal decision-making bodies, especially within the private sector and in civil society."

She said that despite women's progress and advanced levels of education, there were still areas of concern with respect to levels of employment.

"Your situation in the private sector is not far removed from that in the public sector, particularly in Barbados. In the public sphere, of the 30 elected Members of Parliament, there are three women. Two have ministerial portfolios, in addition to one parliamentary secretary.

"In Cabinet, the executive arm of Parliament, of the 18 members, two are women, while in the Senate there are seven women among the 21 members. This amounts to approximately 20 per cent of women in the local legislature.

"In the public service at large, in the positions of permanent secretaries and related grades, women account for 39 per cent.

"We are making strides as far as representing women at all levels of society but when you realise that women constitute just over 50 per cent of our population, you see that there is indeed a misrepresentation at these levels of decision-making," she charged.

Byer-Suckoo said the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) would increase its women candidates to 50 per cent by 2016.

"Hopefully, that means . . . we should be seeing more [women] ministers and Members of Cabinet and Parliament," the minister said.

She also lauded Government for joining 189 other countries in intensifying the "process of change and improvement of the lives" of ocal women and charged that through the Ministry of Family, the process would go"full steam" ahead.