(EDITOR’S NOTE: I was compelled to share this presentation posted by Glenys Hanna-Martin on her Facebook page on September 11. I have expressed the opinion on more than one occasion that more well-educated and ambitious Black Bahamian women should get actively involved in front-line politics in The Bahamas, and Mrs. Hanna-Martin eruditely addresses this issue.)
GUEST COMMENTARY: BY GLENYS HANNA MARTIN
NASSAU, Bahamas — I wish to begin my presentation by paying homage to the ancestors and in particular those women of courage who formed the Suffrage movement. These women struck a revolutionary blow for the advancement of women everywhere. Their shoes are perhaps too big to fill but we stand proudly on their shoulders.
And we do so with a heart full of gratitude.
Let us never forget.
My message is a simple one: this journey for women which we track back to the intervention of our suffragettes is incomplete. Women who represent one-half of the world’s population are tonight grossly underrepresented in national parliaments all over the world.
According to IPU PARLINE, which provides global data on national Parliaments, as of February 2019 just under one quarter of all national parliamentarians were women.
REPRESENTED AS A MINORITY GROUP
And so today, just as ever, we are mandated to ignite that same spirit of activism that we saw in the Suffragettes which has been so important to achieving the substantial leaps in our human progress and which is necessary for continuing forward movement.
In recalling this journey, we are reminded that under the common law tradition, women were considered almost as “perpetual juveniles” and this was reflected in a variety of statutes. A woman could not vote. A married woman was grouped with “idiots” and “lunatics” as persons with disabilities. The common law dictated a subordinate status for women. Culturally women were not encouraged to pursue anything more than a bare basic education.
TRUTH NOT FICTION
Married women generally were not allowed to make contracts, devise wills, take part in other legal transactions, or control any wages they earned. It is reputed that the common law allowed a man to beat his wife but only with an instrument no thicker than his thumb.
Substantial leaps of positive progress have been made over the generations and we celebrate that wholeheartedly but there continues even today to be structural barriers , subtle and not so subtle gender bias which are invisible to the human eye but colossal in impact on the collective progress of women.
Our conversation tonight is confirmation that we at this moment in history, the successors of those great suffragettes are tasked with contributing our part to the further advancement of women as we seek to redress the remnants of historical impediments and cultural bias.
We believe that a better world can be achieved when the voices and vision and peculiar insights and challenges of women are more proportionately integrated into the political process and thus into the rhythm and melody of human development.
But does it matter that we are so severely and shockingly underrepresented around the table of power when decisions that affect our respective countries are being made?
It matters!
What we do know is that political activation impacts societies and directly influences and shapes the direction and pace of human progress. This is the powerful feature of the political enterprise.
Imagine that we represent at least 50% of those impacted by those decisions, but we are hardly at the table!
Further research (WOMEN AS AGENTS OF CHANGE: VOICE IN SOCIETY & INFLUENCING POLICY ABSTRACT The World Bank’s World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development (WDR2012), an article by Susan Markham has shown that “generally women legislators bring attention to a broader range of policy issues and that when women are empowered as political leaders, countries often experience higher standards of living with positive developments in education, infrastructure and health and concrete steps to help democracy deliver. Women lawmakers, therefore, have often been perceived as more sensitive to community concerns and more responsive to constituency needs. (Markham)
And if we accept that women, representing half the population, bring unique perspectives and passions to the political process and that for a better world, a greater country, it is necessary that we have greater representation of women, then we are left to ponder why it has yet to be made manifest. Those are deep contemplations deeply rooted in our history as I have sought to allude briefly.
Of course, the research is replete with analyses, theories, findings as to why so few women are participating at the parliamentary level globally. Some of those social and political scientists have been led to ask in their writings whether the dominant thinking in our respective countries in fact supports a premise of men and women as equal human beings
I will not disturb you on this occasion with the range of discussion on that issue, but what we do know is that despite all the discussions, the statistics show not only a consistent state of general underrepresentation at that level, but also importantly a relatively slow pace of reforming this status quo. And truthfully, we have been having this conversation for a long time now, not just here in The Bahamas but across the planet in countries everywhere, including our big and powerful neighbours to the North.
THE FINDINGS ARE UNIVERSAL
In our own region this is also the case, save that we see in Cuba and Grenada — among a few other hemispheric countries — a more reflective ratio of male female in the respective Parliaments.
Here in The Bahamas our current representation is 13% in Parliament… So why have we been having this conversation on a continuous basis without the radical results we want to see?
Perhaps it is centred on how we view this struggle. Is it simply that we want more “girls” in the boys club or is it because we want to transform the Club itself?
Indeed, what is this “club?”
The club, so to speak is the place where laws are made, The Parliament, which is the constitutional forum of elected individuals where public debate takes place and laws enacted, and under our own Constitution it is the forum of the accountability of governments and specifically executive power in the Cabinet.
The club is the Cabinet itself and indeed it is also in leadership of our political Parties.
The club is the critical arena of public policy touching every aspect of our lives.
So while on the surface we may be talking about numbers, what we are really discussing is substantive change in our social and economic realities; quality of life. A future for generations yet unborn. We are talking about human progress.
Women have always been at the forefront of the struggle for freedom. Our efforts and energies have always made the difference. Women have for generations been activists in these causes, but despite numbers in the population and as voters and despite our entrenched vested interest and our active political participation in the welfare of our country, we continue to be grossly underrepresented at the seat of political power.
And I think it is this latter point — the placement and positioning to effect social and economic transformation in our communities, in our country and in the world — which must be the chief motivating force for us. And if we are motivated in this way as our foremothers were so motivated, we will see change.
It is therefore clear that the full representation of women is not only desirable, but necessary in these critical fora. It is clear that women must be fully involved in the political process at all levels — to take stands in the Parliament, to influence policy in the Cabinet and to develop platforms in political organizations
This representation must therefore be quantitative, i.e. in goodly numbers and qualitative, i.e. positively impactful.
I repeat, more women actively involved, qualitatively, in the political arena is not only desirable — it is necessary
So, I end by saying we must be at the table of decision-making in a real way. Women must step forward for public service. We must agitate within our political organizations for a heightened awareness of the necessity to select more women as viable candidates for election to Parliament and to be appointed to the Cabinet.
In summary, we are in the momentum of the suffragettes — full political involvement is the new frontier to a better Bahamas, a better Caribbean region and a better world. And in this we must, despite our political differences, cooperate and collaborate.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: SOURCE Wikipedia) — Glenys Hanna Martin is a three-time Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) member of Parliament for the Englerston Constituency, having first won the seat in the 2002 General Elections. That same year she was appointed to the Cabinet of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas as Minister of Transport and Aviation. In 2012, when the PLP was again elected to government, she was again appointed Minister of Transport and Aviation. She was the first women to hold the position of Chairman of the PLP when she was elected in 2008 and is currently the only woman among the four PLP Opposition members of the House of Assembly.)
