Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Dr Marlene Street Forrest is this year’s recipient of the Soroptimist International Club of Jamaica’s Stella Gregory Award for her role in encouraging the growth of female leadership in Jamaica.

The Stella Gregory Award was inaugurated in 1976 to honour the Club’s founder, Stella Gregory, who introduced Soroptimist International as the first service club for business and professional women in Jamaica.

Street Forrest is holder of a national award, the commander of the order of distinction for her work in transforming the JSE. Earlier this year she was conferred with an honorary doctorate from the University College of the Caribbean in the field of public policy.

She said that while there is still gender inequality in Jamaica, things are changing rapidly and implored females to seize the opportunity granted to them through education.

Street Forrest, who became general manager of the JSE in 2005 and now leads the group as managing director, during which time the Exchange was – in 2015 and 2018 – recognised as the best performing exchange in the world.

Paying forward the opportunities given

She said there remains much work to be done, noting, “there is so much more work for us as women to do and that includes paying forward the opportunities that have been given to us, by simply affirming other girls and women, by mentoring, and providing opportunities for them to excel”.

According to her, “it is a fact that although educational opportunities are open to all and women have achieved, globally and indeed in Jamaica, there still is not equal representation as captains of industries and within the political arena. We understand that one does not get into a door unless you are given access through lobbying, arduous work at pushing the obstacles down or just seizing an opportunity at the right time when it is presented. We must relentlessly continue to do so”.

Continuing, the JSE MD remarked that, “we must however remember how for years some of the ‘gatekeepers’ have been playing an integral part in assisting to narrow and to remove the gender representation gap. Even in my own advancement, I have risen on the shoulders of some men, who have seen the need to have a balance at both the managerial and board levels and have fought hard to assist in having my talent recognised”.

Street Forrest charged women to change their mindsets as they seek recognition for their talents, saying of equal importance is the engaging of women, some of whom must also change their mindsets into thinking that to improve and increase access for other women is to devalue their own achievements.

“As women, we should be comfortable in our skins and our progress will be based on our excellence. What prevents a woman leader from being pretty and powerful, and smart, yet sensitive? Nothing!,” Street Forrest said.

She praised the Soroptimist global volunteer movement for women for championing the advancement of female leadership.

She declared: “I can relate to the values and mission of the Soroptimist global volunteer movement for women in business, management, and the professions, which continue to work to transform the lives of women and girls. This was necessary when the movement was founded, and I believe would have taken a certain level of grit and determination to attempt to level a playing field which was heavily stacked against women.”