Unemployment, violence concern women

By NADINE WILSON Observer staff reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, March 08, 2010

An increase in unemployment and violence against women in Jamaica are two of the most pressing issues needing to be addressed as the world celebrates International Women's Day today, Bureau of Women's Affairs Head Faith Webster, has said.

Webster yesterday expressed concern about the women who have been made redundant from their jobs over the past few months and called for more survival strategies to be put in place to assist them.

"It is definitely going to affect women, it is not just going to be men alone. It is going to affect families, because we have mostly female-headed households. It is going to affect them in terms of how they provide for their families especially with this economic crunch," she told the observer.

She called for more discussions at the government level as well as with civic society to "hear the voice of women" in order to see their prevailing needs and address them accordingly.

Just this week, both Air Jamaica and the National Commercial Bank announced that they would be cutting staff.

"There are several issues affecting women right now, but I think unemployment is the most pressing one," said Minister Olivia "Babsy" Grange, whose ministry has responsibility for women's affairs and gender issues. "If our women are employed, it makes them more independent and it removes that need to be dependent on a man to survive, to eat, to just live and to take care of their children. And that dependency at times expose them to domestic violence and so it leads back to violence against women.

Women and children from across the island last year became the victims of gruesome crimes resulting in 163 women and 81 children being killed in 2009 alone. Just last week residents of Olympic Gardens in St Andrew were left to mourn the gruesome demise of Jordane Gordon, an infant who was burnt to death when gunmen fire-bombed the home he shared with his father and grandmother on White Wing Avenue in the community.

Police statistics indicate that there has been a minimal decline in violence against women. In 2008 for example, 165 females and 94 children were killed and there were 673 rape and 511 carnal abuse cases in comparison to 849 and 610 of these cases in 2008.

"It is still too high, but the trend downwards for those areas where there is showing a decline, is certainly a welcome. The areas where we haven't seen an improvement, we are working on that to ensure that we can reduce those," said Grange, while adding that, "We really have to continue to work and even to increase the efforts that we are making for the reduction of violence against women."

While there has been a reduction in major crimes against women, police statics suggest that other forms of violence against women are on the increase. There were 2615 assault cases in 2008 in comparison to 2285 the previous year and 151 shooting incidents up from 126. Approximately 45 children were involved in incest cases in 2008.

But even as gender activists across the island lament the discriminations against Jamaican women, Grange said there was much to celebrate today.

"Jamaican women have contributed significantly to every area of national life, offering leadership in the health and education of families, in our classrooms, fields, factories, and increasingly in our boardrooms," she said while adding that the government of Jamaica remains committed to the achievement of gender equality, which it demonstrates through the implementation of policies that facilitate gender mainstreaming and gender-based research and public education.

International Women's Day is celebrated every year on March 8 and marks the increasing recognition of the struggles of women against all levels of discrimination and exploitation, in all countries of the world.

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COMMENTS (2)

Verna Kitson
3/8/2010

@ Fabian - you have made an excellent observation. While I ally myself with feminist politics in general, I think that far too many Jamaican feminists are still languishing under the 1980s top-down "women and development" framework, and spend far more time talking like they are UN representatives than acting like they have the best interests of this entire society in mind. Where has Faith Webster and those of her ilk been all these years - I don't see them spearheading any grassroots campaign, I don't hear them speaking out and agitating for better and more just policing of our communities, for more accountability by politicians, nothing. They have not bothered to use the rich history of feminism to try to make any changes. All they do is talk, and act as if they are saying something new. We didn't need to wait for Int'l Women's Day to hear that all the redundancies have specific effects on women that are worth addressing. They frame violence against women so narrowly, it's no wonder that people can't get behind this issue, in a society where violence of all sorts is pervasive. The men who are killing other men, as well as women and children are all connected to women. They were somebody's child too! Violence creates unsafe communities for all of us. That's what makes all violence a feminist issue! Working against violence - especially against all the forms of violence perpetrated by men on the society - is important to feminism. The goal is a just and equal society; not just securing some nebulous thing called "women's rights". The BWA really needs to figure out how to step into the 21st century. As a governmental entity, it is seriously failing men and women in this society.

Fabian Campbell
3/8/2010

We all agreed that voilenece agains women and children is of great concern in Jamaica when you study the statistics and trends. Also unemployment figures for women are very worrisom according to STATIN. But what always puzzle me is how comes there are no group out there strongly advocating agains voilence and unemployment agains our young men. More men are murdered in Jamaica annually. I'm not able to apply statistics to back up my argument, but according to the~1600 people murdererd (condolence to their love ones) last year, more than 1200 were men. Thats X4 that of women and children combined. I must retract my statement, Jamaica for Juctice is the only visible group out there burning a torch agains voilence agains our young men. But thats not enough. When you look at the unemployment figures relating to our young men, its very grave. This in it self is a huge factor in voilence agains woman, children and men. Too many idle hands and brains out there.

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Unemployment, violence concern women