The road to equality for women has been long and arduous. This Gleaner article from all the way back in 1978 is an example of just that.

Published, March 11, 1978 Page 10

THE POWER OF AN IDEA

by Jimmy Tucker

Wednesday March 8 was International Women’s Day.  Celebrated for the first time in Jamaica, the activities commemorating the day helped to sharpen the debate on the status of women in our society and to offer a partial answer to the call for a coalition government.

From a background of debate on the unwed teacher maternity issue and the Parliamentary debate to prohibit publication of details of divorce cases, among other issues, the Wednesday evening programme at Tom Redcam Library, in commemoration of the day, was of particular importance.  The evening’s programme was complemented by a thoughtful speech by the Honourable Carmen MacGregor, Jamaica’s Minister of State for Women’s Affairs.  Mrs. MacGregor outlined the international struggle of women for equality and made pointed references to struggles in southern Africa, the United States, with special reference to the work of Angela Davis and the struggles of Cuban women.

She also offered a special welcome to Dr. Natalya Kislyak and Miss Galina Mixilovna, visiting delegates from the USSR.

She spoke of Government’s efforts to come to grips with the legitimate rights of women and made specific reference to the Equal Pay Act, the National Minimum Wage and the establishment of Basic Schools and Day Care Centres throughout our country.  Most importantly, she pointed out that the struggle of women is deeply integral to the nation’s struggle for national independence.

It is from this note that special consideration needs to be given in respect of the consolidation of interests of women and the call for a coalition government.  But before a debate of any importance is achieved on this question of a coalition government we need to recognise that among the obvious interests of women across the country, interests that ought to facilitate the achievement of common cause, the reality reflects partisan divisiveness and competition that will only be changed by education and the increasing pressure of economic circumstances.

Bureaucratic Interests

Secondly, it should be made clearly evident that a country’s unity is not and cannot be, established and sustained by the consolidated interests of bureaucrats and oligarchs.  The struggle of the majority for a better quality of life, although perceived by bureaucrats and oligarchs as ideological, remains a matter of bread and butter wants for the majority of the poor.  What we have here is also the fundamental question of social engineering, an aspect of which is the clear reminder that in the real world, one and one makes two.

On this our national dilemma, we might learn something from the history of the women’s movement in America.  One hundred years ago, during the period of reconstruction, the woman’s right of franchise was a burning issue.  This issue was promoted by William Garrison, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas, the great statesman and orator.  As was done when the civil rights movement became too hot for the liberals of America towards the end of the decade of the 1960’s, exactly one century before, during the decade of the 1860’s, the women’s movement was used to deflect the attention of that nation from its responsibility to civil rights and racial equality. During the last two decades Madison Avenue has been helping to promote women’s liberation.  But this movement in Jamaica has a fundamental difference to its counterpart in the U.S.; the movement here is struggling for the survival, recognition and the diversification of the role of women in nation building.

Survival

Rather than being used as an instrument of deflection from the fundamental economic and social issues in our country, people-oriented interests such as those that are unique to the women’s movement, must become the surer foundation on which we propose the survival of the nation.  It is certainly a better prospect than a coalition of bureaucratic interests.

“When a great truth once gets abroad in the world, no power on earth can imprison it, or prescribe its limits or suppress it.  It is bound to go on, till it becomes the thought of the world.  Such a truth is woman’s right to equal liberty with man.  She was born with it.  It was hers before she comprehended it.”

Similarly, we need to understand that for many of us, the egalitarian principle came to Jamaica before we were able to comprehend it.  What is happening to our country is not necessarily the fault of David Coore or Michael Manley, it is not even the fault of the two party system. The fact of the matter is that you cannot turn back an idea whose time has come.  It is from an appreciation of this notion that certain social and economic adjustments must be executed.

The interests of bureaucrats and oligarchs, consolidated without a commitment to real democracy, will not lead us out of this dilemma.  If we think otherwise, then history will correct that error.                                                                                                                                                                      

As with Guyana, the same answer must be given in Jamaica.  Coalition must begin with the interests of groups of people, not with bureaucrats.

If it is true that our present difficulties must be put on the shoulders of one or two public servants, then it is only indicative of the measure of understanding the great majority of Jamaicans have in respect of their democratic responsibility.

To my mind, the answer to our national dilemma must be found in the resolve that among the desperate and turbulent play of conflicting interests in our society, the new initiative will emerge.  New structures do not necessarily provide bureaucrats with higher levels of commitment and performance.  Let us learn from the YAM – now is the time for steadiness of purpose.  The yam is in the ground; the head, the ‘older order,’ is decaying.  Under the soil a new order is emerging, and be assured, the democratic interests of Jamaica shall be victorious.