EDITORIAL - Women can't do any worse

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller should have had no difficulty convincing anyone, but for the deliberately pig-headed, that Jamaica, in the 70 years of universal adult suffrage, has done insufficiently to increase the numbers and role of women in political leadership.

"We cannot sit back and feel comfortable because a few women have been able to break through the barriers and create history," the prime minister said at a recent function celebrating her 40 years in politics.

While Mrs Simpson Miller - Jamaica's first female leader and one of a minority globally - was focused on politics, the issue of gender imbalance that she addressed is evident across the society. The good thing, especially now that the prime minister has publicly addressed the issue, is that she is in a position to do something about it.

First, though, a bit of context may be useful for those who deny this gender bias against women. Of the 362 persons elected to Parliament in the 70 years since universal adult suffrage, a mere 10 per cent of them have been women.

Further, in corporate Jamaica, fewer than a fifth of members of boards of listed companies are female. Gender imbalance prevails, too, on the boards of government agencies, as a 2012 analysis by the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre showed.

Indeed, over that period, of 106 public boards with 1,048 members, women represented only 24 per cent of the membership. On nearly 40 per cent of the boards, women accounted for 20 per cent or fewer of the members. On only 35 per cent was female representation between 31 and 50 per cent, and on only 12 were they in the majority.

It should be noted that that is in a context where females account for 50.5 per cent of the population, are generally better educated than males, and account for 70 per cent of tertiary-level enrolment.

This gender imbalance in political and economic leadership is based not on talent, skill or other objective measures, but is the outcome of historical relations of little value in a time when intellect, more than muscle, is likely to be the better determinant of a society's prosperity. The circumstances demand shared roles between men and women.

Indeed, in the half a century since Jamaica's Independence, the predominant political leadership has made rather a hash of things. Over the past four decades, growth has averaged less than one per cent annually; Jamaica has one of the world's highest debts; its infrastructure is in a state of disrepair; its education outcomes are poor; and the country has among the world's highest homicides rates.

WOMEN WILL DO BETTER

Women could hardly do worse. And they are likely to cause us to do better.

Indeed, there are many studies that economies with women in leading positions of corporate governance tend to do better than those where they are absent, and one study by the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, quoting the consulting firm, Grant Thorn, showed that firms with at least one female board member was 20 per cent less likely go belly-up. The odds improve with an increase in women.

With that regard, Mrs Simpson Miller, as a prime minister and party leader, should fully throw her weight behind Senator Imani Duncan-Price's call for gender-neutral electoral quotas by the political parties, and should insist in her own organisation for a removal of impediments to female participation in politics. She should also establish gender-neutral quotas for the boards of government bodies. She should also directly engage the private sector on gender balance in its corporate governance.

We have only one proviso. Like our position with males, the selections must be based on competence, rather than cronyism.

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.