Globalisation and gender power
Jamaican women are being warned against exaggerating their achievements, as they should be aware that power and property still rests with men.
So says Donald Keith Robotham, professor and lecturer of the City of New York University while addressing a mainly female audience at the second annual Madame Rose Leon memorial lecture at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica’s auditorium recently.
“The bulk of the decision-making power still lies in the hands of men who still own most of the properties, with female unemployment still doubling that of the male’s. Women must give leadership in the economy in the same sense that men do, so they won’t be blindsided [by the belief that] women give the softer touch.”
Robotham described Madame Rose Leon as a pioneer of Jamaican politics who joined the House of Representatives in 1949, became the first chairman of the Jamaica Labour Party in 1951, first minister of health in 1953, and was gunned down at age 87 on October 16, 1999 at her Cooper’s Hill residence.
Speaking under the theme “Women and Political Power – Their role in a globalised society” Robotham said of Madame Leon: “She was not just the first female MP, but was the first female politician to have such unparalleled influence in that era. She even surpassed Eleanor Roosevelt and Evita Peron who entered the political arena on the backwash of their husbands’ influence, while she did this on her own,” said Robotham.
The anthropologist, however, quickly pointed out that Leon’s exceptional achievement was rooted in the Jamaican woman’s tradition of ambition- driven independence.
“This stems from slavery, since the bulk of cane-field workers were females and thus both earners and savers,” explained Robotham.
The Jamaican woman has since slavery been a rigorous participant in the island’s workforce and is a key figure in attempts to provide coping mechanisms in the present face of globalisation, Robotham said.
He emphasised that women were effective in public education and therefore played a vital role in combating globalisation’s current draconian effects.
“Public education is the first step in effectively tackling globalisation, and Jamaican women have and must continue to educate the public on civic and economic matters”.
He highlighted the fact that children of women whose independence and drive are combined with higher education are usually higher achievers than those raised solely by men equally educated.
Industry and tourism minister, Aloun Assamba, reminded the group that a female politician’s lot was sometimes lonely. “Sometimes I feel powerless because I don’t get the feeling that there is a support group for us, because the gender system and gender reality still oppress us,” lamented Assamba. She also said that women were often quick to ‘tear down’ other women who stumbled in the political arena.
Robotham’s answer to this was, “Women are participating in the degeneration of women, but this is not new, since this is how oppression is continued – the oppressed normally oppress themselves.”
