Caribbean’s different gender gap: women rise, men stagnate

By Michelle Nurse Last updated Feb 17, 2015

In this Feb. 2, 2015 photo, student teacher Shane Sinclair, right, helps veteran teacher Lillia Lewin-Robinson teach third-grade boys a math lesson using a soccer ball at a co-ed primary school experimenting with single-sex classrooms in a poor community in Kingston, Jamaica. Educators in Jamaica say the research they have conducted has shown that boys in single-sex schools do better than those in co-educational ones. (Photo via AP/David McFadden) — In this February 2, 2015 photo, student teacher Shane Sinclair, right, helps veteran teacher Lillia Lewin-Robinson teach third-grade boys a math lesson using a soccer ball at a co-ed primary school experimenting with single-sex classrooms in a poor community in Kingston, Jamaica. Educators in Jamaica say the research they have conducted has shown that boys in single-sex schools do better than those in co-educational ones. (**Photo via AP/David McFadden**)

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — When the young woman was preparing to open a business in Jamaica selling pipes, vaporizers and other smoking paraphernalia, some acquaintances suggested she would have difficulty succeeding in a niche trade dominated by men.

Now, about a year-and-a-half after its launch at a hotel complex in Jamaica’s capital, Ravn Rae’s smoking supplies store is growing and she’s proving doubters wrong in a Caribbean country where women have made such big advances in professions once dominated by men that a new U.N. study says it has the world’s highest proportion of female bosses.

“Women are the ones who are the main breadwinners. We push harder to earn,” says Rae at her smoke shop, which she hopes to soon expand into a medical marijuana dispensary if lawmakers pass a decriminalization bill and allow a regulated cannabis industry. For now, she manages one saleswoman.

Jamaica Caribbean Gender Gap — In this Feb. 5, 2015 photo, Ravn Rae sits behind the counter of her smoking supplies store, Mez, located in a hotel complex in Kingston, Jamaica. Some of Rae’s acquaintances suggested she would have difficulty succeeding in a niche trade dominated by men, but about a year-and-a-half after launching her store, her company is growing and she’s proving doubters wrong in a Caribbean country where women have made such big advances in professions once dominated by men that a new U.N. study says it has the world’s highest proportion of female bosses. (Photo via AP/David McFadden)