Quotas can reset gender imbalance

This is an edited version of Imani Duncan-Price's presentation to the Senate last Friday.

With gender equality, the experiences, abilities and insights of both women and men are a win-win solution for Jamaica. Indeed, the 2012 World Bank reports unequivocally that gender equality enhances economic productivity, improves development outcomes for the next generation, makes institutions and policies more representative. In short, gender equality is smart economics!

From a private-sector perspective, studies published by Forbes magazine and Catalyst (a research NGO) in 2011 indicate that companies with a higher number of women on their boards had a "53 per cent higher return on equity, 66 per cent higher return on invested capital and 42 per cent higher return on sales".

Since women tend to be more risk averse than their male counterparts, other surveys have shown that companies with gender-diverse boards came through the recession faster and better than companies with all-male boards. In addition, a survey of more than 600 board directors found that at the board level, where directors must take the views of multiple stakeholders into account, women's more cooperative approach to decision-making created better performance for their companies.

Experience reminds us that patriarchy is alive and well. I wish to emphasise that patriarchy is not a code for or against men and does not refer to any individual or collection of men. Patriarchy is a reference to a kind of society in which men and women are in unequal relations of power, which affects relationships in all spheres.

So even when there is a woman as prime minister of our country and we have a high percentage of women in our universities (62 per cent women versus 38 per cent men registered) and 55 per cent of the graduates of HEART in 2012 were women, patriarchal power runs things. The power dynamics of this are real. Women are not in equal numbers at the table, in decision-making - equally participating throughout society. Women are still twice as likely to be unemployed or employed in low-paying jobs compared to men in Jamaica (Jamaica Economic Statistics Database, 2007). In fact, a 2010 IDB study revealed that on average, women in Jamaica, at all levels, earn approximately 12.5 per cent less than males for the same jobs.

As a per cent, one or two women are let in from time to time, but the power remains firmly in the hands of male privilege. However, the underlying structure of the system actually has not changed, and we still see contemptuous attitudes and offensive behaviours towards women often manifested in abuse - verbal, physical, sexual, and otherwise.

The participation rate of women in general elections and local government elections as candidates is significantly low, and thus the subsequent representation rates of women (those who actually win) are also significantly lower than men. And this reality is one that has persisted from 1944. Indeed, data from the Electoral Office of Jamaica indicate that of the 835 persons elected to Parliament in the 70 years since 1944, only 67 have been females - eight per cent.

not good enough

According to the current data for 2014, women now represent a mere 12.7 per cent of the members of parliament, 20 per cent of the Cabinet, and 28.6 per cent of the Senate. The highest ever achieved for the MP was 15 per cent - in 1997. This is not good enough.

My research showed that women accounted for only 35 per cent of those running for political office in the 2011 general election. Women weren't even half of the possibility set. Of the 63 seats contested, 22 seats were contested by women. As indicated before, of that 22, only eight, or 12.7 per cent, won their seats.

Given the slow speed at which the number of women in politics has grown, the time is, therefore, now for more efficient methods to be used to achieve gender balance in political institutions. Quotas, as a temporary special measure, present ONE such mechanism that has proved to be effective.

The best way forward is to employ a temporary special measure by way of instituting a gender-neutral quota system for the Senate and for the candidate slate of political parties. Within this frame, neither gender would fill more than 60 per cent nor fewer than 40 per cent of the appointed or elected positions in either the Senate or the House of Representatives.

I recommend that such a system of special measures be instituted for only two terms or for a 10-year period while we also implement the plans laid out in the National Policy on Gender Equality, which seeks to change and improve the systemic problems.

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