Women and the Jamaican Political Process Part VII: “The Times They Are A-Changing”

When People’s National Party (PNP) president Michael Manley was returned to power in 1989, US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had led the western world in establishing the ascendancy of free-market capitalism.

This had major implications for Jamaica, given the importance of the United States and Britain as Jamaica’s major trading partners.

The collapse of international communism in 1991 opened the door to globalisation. Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) president Edward Seaga’s attempts to maintain a major role for the state in the Jamaican economy during his tenure 1980-89 had failed.

In 1991, Manley finally took the steps required by global capital to liberalise and deregulate the Jamaican economy as a pre-condition for any further investment, thus guaranteeing the ascendancy of the market and limiting the power of the state to intervene, regulate and protect.

The Jamaican economy, which had started to stagnate with the 1973 global recession, has continued to record marginal or negative growth.

 

“An examination of the available data shows that for the period 1972-1996 Jamaica’s GDP grew by only 8.8% or an average annual rate of 0.3% per annum and that per capita GDP fell by 17.5% or an average annual rate of 0.7% per annum.” (Owen Jefferson: ‘Jamaica’s Post War Economy’).

With the increasing dominance of global free-market capitalism, Jamaica has reduced state-financed welfare services; workers’ rights have been undermined; and wealth continues to be concentrated in the top 1% with the social consequence of increasing the indebtedness of the middle class and the criminalisation of the poor.

The failure of successive administrations to build on the 1957 education reforms, which expanded while maintaining quality and most importantly introduced technology at the secondary and tertiary levels, has produced a labour force with neither the managerial nor the technological capacity to modernise the Jamaican economy and produce goods and services to compete in the global economy. As a consequence, while access to secondary education has increased by some 600% since independence and tertiary enrolment by over 1,000%, Jamaica’s labour force has one of the lowest levels of productivity in the region.

A survey done by noted sociologist Pat Anderson in 1999 disclosed that 74% of all unemployed youth in the age group 15-29 had no educational certification of any kind, although more than 25% had four years or more of secondary education. The situation is made even worse for the fact that Jamaica exports some 70% of our university graduates.

All this had led to the more frightening reality that, according to the Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (2018), there are some 325,000 young Jamaicans between the ages of 15 and 34 who are “neither working nor looking for work”. In 2019 there was a 30% increase in urban poverty, even as unemployment decreased. This means that for the first time, employment no longer automatically lifts the worker out of poverty.

It is to be noted that even in this period of economic and social decline since 1989, women became more visible in political leadership at both the national and parish levels.

Brenda Ramsay (Manchester), Jennifer Edwards (St Catherine), Eva Murdoch (St Ann), Angela Brown-Burke (Kingston and St Andrew Corporation [KSAC]) have joined Iris King, Marie Atkins and Coleen Yap (KSAC) as mayors of their respective jurisdictions. Syringa Marshall-Burnett became the first female president of the Senate, and Maxine Henry-Wilson, the first Leader of Government Business in the Senate. At another level, the establishment of Gender Affairs as a cabinet subject had focused women’s concerns within the Executive.

The most far-reaching achievement for women was in 2006, when Portia Simpson Miller became the first female president of a major political Party, and Jamaica’s first female prime minister. It had been a long road for this political icon, who was first elected to parliament in 1976 and who, up until her retirement in 2016, remained the ‘queen’ of her South West St Andrew constituency.

It is to her credit that during her tenure as prime minister (2012-2016), she provided the support for her minister of finance, Peter Phillips, to implement the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) that brought Jamaica back from the brink of bankruptcy and restored macro-economic stability.

In this era of globalised free-market capitalism, many of the gains made by women have been eroded. Simultaneously, the electorate has been turning more and more to female political representatives who demonstrate the capacity to intervene daily to alleviate the poverty of their constituents. The standard bearer of this capacity was Enid Bennett, who remained undefeated for 30 years as Member of Parliament for West Central St Catherine.

The tradition she established was maintained by Shahini Robinson, who was elected Member of Parliament for North East St Ann in 2001 and remained undefeated up until her death in 2020.

Other female Members of Parliament, who by the quality of their representation have contributed to the increasing dominance of women in electoral politics, include Olivia Grange (Central St Catherine); Denise Daley (Eastern St Catherine) and Natalie Neita-Headley (North Central St Catherine); and Maxine Henry-Wilson (South East St Andrew).

The male dominance of parliamentary elections, which was evident up to 1989, is coming to an end. In 1944 Iris Collins was the only woman elected to the House of Representatives, and Iris King was the only female in the Parliament that took Jamaica into independence.

The change started in 1989 when 14 female candidates stood for election. However, only three - Portia Simpson, Enid Bennett and Violet Neilson were elected to Parliament.

As the 2020 General Elections show, a revolution has taken place since 1989. “The times they are a-changing”. Women are taking over. In these elections, a record 26 women were nominated as candidates.

In three constituencies, both the JLP and PNP had female candidates. Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn (JLP) and Krystal Tomlinson (PNP) contested the West Rural St Andrew constituency; Juliet Holness (JLP) and Joan Gordon-Webley (PNP) in East Rural St Andrew; and Veneisha Phillips (PNP) and Fayval Williams (JLP) in Eastern St. Andrew. Portland also had two female candidates in both constituencies – Ann-Marie Vaz and Valerie Neita-Robertson. Westmoreland was the only parish in which there were no female candidates.

An outstanding feature of these elections was the number of established male incumbents who were defeated by women. Michelle Charles (JLP) defeated PNP veteran Fenton Ferguson in Eastern St Thomas and in North West St Ann, KrystaL Lee (JLP) handed the PNP’s Dayton Campbell a decisive defeat. In Western Hanover, Tamika Davis (JLP) triumphed over the PNP incumbent, Ian Hayles, while Rhoda Crawford (JLP) defeated the PNP incumbent and Party leader aspirant, Peter Bunting. All four women were newcomers.

Looking ahead, women can hardly remain satisfied by their increasing dominance of Parliament. The concerns that face women and the challenges they encounter in their daily lives can only be addressed by a new policy framework which educates and trains the kind of labour force with the capacity to transform the economy and achieve levels of equitable growth to improve the quality of life for all.

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Arnold Bertram is a historian and former cabinet minister of government. You may send comments to: redev.atb@gmail.com