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

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.