A pledge for parity: the Jamaican context

INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated today globally under the theme Pledge for Parity.Dr Keino Senior — senior lecturer, gender and development lecture chair, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts:

It is expected that everyone — men and women – will pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly — whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures, or root out workplace bias.

All Woman decided to ask two experts about the Jamaican context — how far are we with regards to gender parity and where do we really need to be in order to close the gender gap.

Their responses are below:

In my own analysis the ongoing transformation of gender roles and the association that undergirds it, and by extension perpetuate individuals’ resistance with self -identity and interpersonal relationships, make gender a diverse issue. The discourse on gender, masculinities and femininities, highlights and elucidates how gender is socially, historically, ideologically and culturally constructed and transformed through a critical medium of communication.

Two of the most important historical factors that influence gender ideologies are plantation slavery and indentureship. Both the plantation system and indentureship had significant demarcation of gender roles and the different ways the concepts of masculinities and femininities developed along the lines of race.

In culture and the arts in particular, gender stereotyping exists in all the visual and performing artforms. This is due to the fact that Caribbean society continues to see gender as a binary construction which is fixed as either masculine or feminine. As such, there has always existed this major division between masculinity and femininity in the practice and understanding of the arts.

The dominant patriarchal system continues to reinforce the power within the relationship between male and female. One of the issues which clearly points to the disparity in gender inequalities is the significant gap in the employment rate between women and men. Women, much more than men, often hold part-time jobs and their rate of employment is significantly lower than that of their male counterparts and their representation in decision and policy making positions are less than acceptable. The issue of violence against women and girls in the home is a large problem.

Clearly, although the struggle for gender equality has been traditionally carried out by women, it is now necessary for men and boys to be included. The struggle for gender equality is not women’s struggle against men, it is a political struggle for both material and non-material power. Though these inequalities exist in Jamaica, Jamaica has made significant strides in addressing these gaps both at the micro and macro levels.

As I reflect on the ideas and practices of gender in Jamaica, I believe that in order to fully educate Jamaica’s people and to accomplish the Vision 2030 Jamaica National Development Plan, gender mainstreaming must be strengthened to include both women and men.Dr Adwoa Onuora — lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Mona Unit:

The Millennium Development Goals has outlined specific goals for gender equality, which include increasing women’s share in political leadership and decision making. The Government of Jamaica reports periodically on all goals including this one. For Jamaica to achieve gender parity, the ideal is about at 50 per cent female representation on public and private boards.

National policy documents such as the National Policy for Gender Equality (NPGE) speaks to at least 30 per cent female representation, but so far we have barely made it to 20 per cent in terms of women’s participation in political leadership. The recently held election has seen an increase in the number of women from 13 per cent to 17 per cent who will sit in the House of Representatives. The fact that that 17 per cent (26/152) of persons who offered themselves up in the recent election were women and 17 per cent are now to be sworn in as members of parliament is indeed a significant step in the right direction.

The government must, however, put words into action, and meet the minimum 30 per cent commitment of female elected in Parliament and appointed on public boards and commissions affirmed in the NPGE.

On public boards we are overall well below the target. Civil society groups such as The 51 per cent Coalition have been calling for measures – measures that will facilitate the acceleration of gender parity – to be implemented to ensure that no less that 40 per cent or more than 60 per cent of either sex be represented in the leadership of the country.

At a structural level, and tied to this very issue of how we see women’s leadership in the public sphere, Jamaica as a society is still plagued by archaic notions that women are second-class citizens because we are still seen by society as primarily reproducers and caregivers. This view in and of itself precludes gender equity as women are not empowered to maximise their full potential as vital contributors to the labour force. Female professionals are still expected to balance both the reproductive and productive labour with no systemic or institutionalised state support to alleviate some of the financial and other challenges of having to juggle this dual role as caregivers and workers. As a society, there needs to be a shift in how we view childbirth and childcare. Both should be seen as public good – one that allows us to supply the current labour force that sustains the capitalist economic order. 

Seeing childcare or reproductive labour as public good allows us to move this village obligation where it belongs, back into the public domain. This would mean the obligation for this reproductive labour is taken out of the home and off the backs of women into the public realm where the state would shoulder the cost of caregiving through a universal child care programme to start.

We are not raising children solely for the emotional rewards. The reality is we are also raising them to sustain an exploitative economic system, which is heavily dependent on women’s unpaid labour. Why then should women continue to do this unpaid work or not even have state support when the capitalist class and the state are reaping the material benefits? This shift will allow women to maximise their full potential in the labour force and will ultimately lead to economic empowerment. At a minimum, caregivers in the home should draw a salary for the work they are doing.