Women Parliamentarians (WPTT) condemn "sexist" remarks made during Budget debate

The Women Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of Trinidad and To­ba­go (WPTT) have con­demned sex­u­al ref­er­ences and in­nu­en­do di­rect­ed at women par­lia­men­tar­i­ans dur­ing the re­cent bud­get de­bate, say­ing po­lit­i­cal dis­agree­ments must not jus­ti­fy lan­guage that de­means women.

In a state­ment, the or­gan­i­sa­tion said women in pub­lic of­fice should be recog­nised for their com­pe­tence, con­tri­bu­tions and ser­vice to the coun­try, rather than judged by their phys­i­cal ap­pear­ance, pre­sumed sex­u­al con­duct or al­leged per­son­al re­la­tion­ships.

“Sex­ism does not be­come ac­cept­able be­cause it is di­rect­ed at a po­lit­i­cal op­po­nent, nor does it be­come harm­less when pre­sent­ed as hu­mour or po­lit­i­cal ban­ter,” the WPTT said.