EDITORIAL - We support Senator Duncan-Price

Two years ago, early in the current administration's term in government, and coincidental to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's guest editorship of this newspaper, we encouraged Jamaica's political parties to set themselves targets "to significantly increase female membership in their councils and in the legislature".

For, as we noted then, there was something "mildly ironic" that Mrs Simpson Miller, Jamaica's female leader, presided over the elected House of Representatives "of which a mere 12 per cent of its members are women ... and of a party whose female representation accounts for only 15 per cent of all its members in both chambers of the legislature".

Imani Duncan-Price's resolution in the Senate calling for a parliamentary committee to consider gender quotas for political representation, therefore, receives our endorsement.

We would have preferred voluntary action by political parties but are now convinced that the legislative route, with broad national mobilisation, is the one likely to achieve movement at a pace which we, like Senator Duncan-Price, believe the circumstances demand.

Indeed, Senator Duncan-Price makes a compelling case for greater participation of women in politics - and we dare say in positions of leadership in all sectors of the society. Fifty-one per cent of Jamaica's population are women, who account for nearly 70 per cent of university enrolment. Women make up the bulk of the workers of political parties which, like most areas of power, economic and otherwise, are dominated by men.

This gender imbalance in politics, a feature of patriarchal dominance, isolates a huge chunk of the country's available talent, to the detriment of the genuine gender partnership and what that offers to national development. Senator Duncan-Price frames that potential loss primarily in terms of economics - highlighting the better returns of firms with greater gender balance in its board. We do not disagree, but proceed from patriarchy's wastefulness in leadership and governance, which it overlooks to the value of partnership. Good governance all round is likely to create the environment for good economics.

IT WON'T BE ENOUGH

With regard to the specifics of political gender quotas, Senator Duncan-Price believes it should be for a limited duration - two election cycles - with candidate quotas, rather than reserved seats, for the House of Representatives. A party would have no fewer than 40 per cent of either sex on its list of candidates in an election. In the appointed Senate, a reserve system would operate.

However, it won't be enough, if it happens, to merely legislate quotas. It has to be supported at two levels: effective enforcement guaranteed by law; and a genuine intent by parties to promote and support the advance of women in their ranks. With regard to the first, quotas might be linked to the planned law for state political party financing; parties would, like under Ireland's 2012 law, be deprived of their financing if they failed to adhere to quotas.

At the other level, while we do not expect the leadership quality bar to be lowered for women, parties, and the wider society, will have to accommodate the complex situation faced by female candidates such as the need to balance political involvement with the demands of family and jobs.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.