Women of the 1940s

As International Women’s Day was commemorated on Tuesday, March 8, I looked at my copy of the Who’ s Who of Jamaica BWI 1941-1946, which has 671 pages, and found that it included just about 80 women. Most of these women were mainly educators, including several music teachers, volunteer social workers, and nurses. There were a few exceptions, including an anthropologist, a few politicians, and medical doctors.

Some of the names - such as Edith Clarke, Iris Collins, Amy Bailey, Louise Bennett, May Farquharson, Cicely Williams, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, Lois Kelley Barrow, Mary Morris Knibb, Rose Leon, Hazel Lawson Street, Edna Manley, Una Marson, and Amiee Webster De-Lisser – are well known to us today.

Some names that we may not recall or know include Dr Doris Maud Buchanan (physician and surgeon), Rev Mary Louise Coore (evangelist), Vera Louise Croskill (civil servant-island statistician), Florence and Sybil Foster-Davis (educators and musician), Violette Hope Panton deBarovier (journalist), Flora Celestine Wells (fashion (modiste) and social economist), Ruby Angele Dumontier Feres (linguist), Winnie Carlotta Jones (hospital matron), Muriel Lynch (educator), Helena Morris (librarian), Ruby Carter (nursing sister), Ethlin Mae Rhodd (educator), Rose Olive Randall (hardware merchant-Manufacturer), Mavis Sutherland (optician), and Evelyn Skempton (educator).

INTERESTING INCLUSIONS

Some interesting inclusions are Vera Bell (Chief Clerk, Engineering Department, National Water Commission), Clara Bell Grant (stenotypist/clerical assistant), Hilda Morris (dress shop owner), Edna Melbourne (accountant/dressmaker), and Irene Louise Wheatle (dressmaker/social worker).

Other women in the arts included Ruby Marion Delgado (musician), Rhoda Jackson (artist), Violet Mills (musician), Iris Patterson (poetess/writer), Florizelle Wilson (violinist), and Esther Chapman (writer).

Among those in sports were Edith Maud Farquharson and Ivy Ramsay in lawn tennis.

Reviewing the list of women deemed worthy to be included in the 1940s Who’s Who, we can certainly say that women in Jamaica have come a long way through the decades leading to independence and since. Women are represented today in nearly all the professions in government, the private sector, and civil society; in senior managerial positions; in business as entrepreneurs, and even more are in politics.

Saluting women’s empowerment.

Contributed by Marcia Thomas