Women on the doorsteps
Published:Sunday | March 27, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Glenda Simms, Gleaner Columnist
On March 8, 2011, Jamaican women were reminded that it has been exactly 100 years since the second wave of feminism stamped its mark on the global agenda for women. It was, therefore, encouraging to see that the Letter of the Day, written by the executive director of The Women's Resource and Outreach
In developing her justification for this courageous declaration, Ms Whyte pointed out that the women of our society have clearly demonstrated the intellectual capacity to outstrip the achievement of their male counterparts in tertiary institutions and in many sectors of the workplace. The letter also cited research
Against this background, WROC will be putting the issue of quotas on the front burner of the women's agenda as we start the journey of the next century which is predicted by many world thinkers and pundits to be the women's century. This clear message was carried in an article published in the March 21, 2011 edition of the All Woman magazine.
According to this article, WROC will, on March 30, release a position paper which "calls for a system of quotas to be implemented regarding gender
Right side of history
WROC is indeed on the right side of history. Many progressive societies and institutions have put in place quotas or affirmative-action policies and structures that have resulted in critical masses of women entering political directorates and
When these societies shift to this enlightened mode of operation, they do so, not because they feel sorry for the female of the species, but because they realise that without the fullest participation of women at all levels of their societies, there can be no sustainable development.
In a May 2009 article in the Boston Globe, writer Rebecca Tuhus Dubrow argued that in the world of business, companies are always looking for ways to increase their profits and to compete in the cut-throat global marketplace.
Obviously, the tired approaches promoted in the MBA programmes offered in the Ivy League corridors of North America and Europe and the imitators of their systems are not necessarily guaranteeing success and exorbitant profit margins anymore,
It is against this background that Tulus Dubrow pointed out that several studies have linked greater gender diversity in senior posts with financial success.
Citing some the more dramatic findings, Dubrow's article, titled 'The Female Advantage', pointed to the following:
● European firms with high proportion of women in power saw stock values climb by 64 per cent over two years.
● "Profits at Fortune 500 firms that most aggressively promoted women were 34 per cent higher than industry medians."
● Recently, "a French business professor found that the share prices of companies with more female managers declined less than average on the French stock market in 2008".
In spite of the body of research that shows that women, by virtue of their history, socialisation and sense of responsibility, are less corrupt and well suited to manage human beings in the complexity of a changing global village, making the case for quotas in the Jamaican society will be an uphill struggle, but women must be prepared to push against the tide.
In Jamaica, there is a strong belief that men are the sole inheritors of the ability to lead at the highest levels of decision-making. This was underlined by Steve Lyston, who contributed the article 'Choosing a leader' in the March 21 edition of The Gleaner.
After pontificating on the pursuit of good leadership and about the core values of leadership that are required to bring about change in the nation, Lyston pointed out that one does not need to have a doctorate, master's or a certain pigmentation to be a successful leader.
To illustrate his point, he named three dead men - two black and one white - and one white man who is still breathing. He also looked back on the past and argued that there are six Jamaican men who should be "returned to active duty". I understand him to be saying that this should happen because these have been exemplary leaders.
My questions to Lyston are - 1. Why is he unable to identify any degreeless women of the past or the present who have given sterling leadership to this country? 2. Are there no breathing 'mothballed' women who have given exemplary service to modern Jamaica?
Of course, it might not be prudent to question Lyston and other self-styled apostles. Some of them purport to have a direct line to gods who do not support women's participation at the highest levels of leadership and authority in either Church or State.
Making the case for quotas in the Jamaican society will be an uphill struggle. However, the groups which are putting quotas on the political agenda must clearly articulate their position and identify the strategies and resources to sustain the fight for women's full human rights in Jamaica. They need to do this because quotas are key to ensuring that women are afforded the right to use their multi-talents in the building of their country.
It is, therefore, crucial for the leadership in the political directorate to show, in concrete terms, their commitment to make quotas work. No doubt, it will take exceptionally strong leadership to counteract the anticipated backlash from the apologists of patriarchal privilege.
Additionally, both political parties must be prepared to ensure that women are assigned winnable seats in the same way that they have historically selected men to occupy and control the most desirable spots in their parties .
It is in this vein that we must go beyond our tribal instincts and congratulate the Jamaica Labour Party for recently placing a young woman in a predictably winnable seat in the local government arena.
It is always interesting to observe that without scientific evidence, parties on both the right and the left pass on the safe seats to the sons and brothers of departing male politicians - a kind of genetic transference of political brain cells.
Patriarchal transfers
On this path, Jamaica is not unique. Egypt, the United States of America and Libya present documented examples of the genetic transfer of political leadership.
It can also be demonstrated that in societies such as Pakistan, India and a few others, political leadership has been transferred from fathers and husbands to the daughters and wives who are designed to protect the legacy of the patriarch. Unfortunately, several of these women were assassinated by the power of opposing patriarchs who did not accept the presence of women at the highest levels of authority in these regimes.
In line with these set patterns of discrimination, the time has come for a coalition of women's groups, human rights activists , progressive institutions and Jamaican civil society, in general, to support the call for quotas in order to level the playing field at the highest levels of decision-making.
This concerted action would be justified and rationalised by the legal commitment that is inherent in the Government of Jamaica's ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Without reservation, the Government of Jamaica committed itself to the following Articles of CEDAW:
● "The adoption of temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards. These measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved.
● Adoption by state parties of special measures, including those measures contained in the present convention aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory.
● The state party [Jamaica] shall take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.
In spite of these serious legal commitments by our Government to the United Nations on behalf of the women of Jamaica, at this time in our history, we are woefully underrepresented in the nation's Parliament and on public boards and commissions.
Currently, we make up 13.3 per cent of Parliament, 11 per cent of the Cabinet, 14.3 per cent of the Senate, 16 per cent of local government councillors, and 7.6 per cent of mayors.
It is, therefore, obvious that the gradual evolution of justice for women will never result in the full human rights of the Jamaican woman.
We need a new and more progressive approach to gendered justice. The time for quotas, affirmative action or temporary measures has come. We are on the doorsteps. We must not step back.
Glenda Simms, PhD, is a gender expert and consultant. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and glendasimms@gmail.com.