THE IMPORTANCE OF WORKING TOWARDS A GENDER-SENSITIVE PARLIAMENT: THE JAMAICAN EXPERIENCE

Hon. Tamika Y. Davis, MP is a first term Member of the Jamaica Parliament for the constituency of Western Hanover and the first woman to achieve this distinction. She is an Attorney at law with over 17 years’ experience including as a Clerk of Courts for the Family Court and practicing commercial law for the operators of the Sangster International Airport. She also established her private practice in Lucea. In Parliament, she currently sits on the following Parliamentary Committees: Privileges; Regulations; Ethics; Public Administration and Appropriations; House; and Standing Orders. She is devoted to public service having served on the board of two high schools and is a past President of the Lions Club in Lucea.

Although Jamaica is better known for producing the fastest man in the world in the form of Usain Bolt who was a prolific record breaker, what is less known is that this small country with a population of approximately 2.8 million people is also breaking records in its bid to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. This goal seeks to achieve gender equality and to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.

In 2020, a record 30 Jamaican women contested the September 3 elections. Of this number, 18 women were elected to serve as Members of Parliament, which means that the percentage of women in the House of Representatives currently stands at 29% - the highest it has ever been. Of these 18 exceptional women, 14 of these, including myself, are from the governing Jamaica Labour Party which is itself a record for any political party. The trend continued in the Upper House which saw eight women being appointed to serve in the 21-member Senate of Jamaica which at 38%, is the largest percentage of women to have served as Senators in the nation’s history. Also, for the first time, the critical leadership roles of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House are held by women.

This increased influx of women into the Legislature is important because extreme poverty rates are higher among women than men in Latin America and the Caribbean, and therefore the perspectives of women are important in securing prosperity for all. As former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, puts it, women in power “can be counted on to raise issues that others overlook, to support ideas that others oppose, and to seek an end to abuses that others accept.”

An important role of Parliament is to provide a safe environment for women and girls as well as other marginalized groups in society. The current crop of Jamaican female Parliamentarians with their unique insights therefore provided meaningful input to the amendments to the Domestic Violence Act which will see, inter alia, an expansion of the category of persons who can apply for protection orders as well as higher fines for persons who breach restraining orders.

The Bureau of Gender Affairs presided over by Hon. Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, MP, our official Gender Champion, who is also the Minister of Culture, Entertainment, Gender and Sport, has been working assiduously to achieve greater gender equality and creating safe spaces for our women and girls and has also championed the Sexual Harassment (Prevention and Prohibition) Act which was passed in December 2021.

It is important for Parliaments to be gender sensitive and this was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a gendered lens, it becomes clearer that men and women are affected differently with the corollary that the needs and interests of women might not be met, leaving them disadvantaged. A stark example of this is the issue of Gender Based Violence (GBV), as one in every four women in Jamaica has faced violence or threats at the hands of her male partner. The pandemic, which brought with it lockdowns, meant that in some cases women and children were locked in with their abusers without access to family or friends. To help mitigate against this problem, the government built national shelters for victims of domestic violence so that Jamaican women now have a safe haven and can receive the necessary psychosocial support.

It is important that the Jamaican Parliament does the work to become a gender sensitive institution which is defined by the InterParliamentary Union (IPU) as: ‘A Parliament that responds to the needs and interests of both men and women in its composition, structures, operations, methods and work. Gender-sensitive Parliaments remove the barriers to women’s full participation and offer a positive example or model to society at large. They ensure that their operations and resources are used effectively towards promoting gender equality.’

The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network is also an active advocate for women's representation in Parliament, seeking to ensure Parliaments are gender-sensitive institutions and has published a set of guidelines on Gender Sensitising Parliaments and a seven-step field guide to help Parliaments through the gendersensitisation process.

To this end, the Jamaica Parliament achieved a significant milestone in 2022 with the creation of a Bicameral Caucus of Women Parliamentarians as a Sessional Select Committee. Both Houses of Parliament will sit jointly to entrench the principles of gender sensitivity in the Jamaican Parliament by way of achieving the following objectives.

1. Facilitating networking, the building of solidarity, and the promotion of constructive dialogue on issues of importance among women Parliamentarians across party lines and Chambers.

2. Providing Caucus Members with professional development opportunities to further strengthen their leadership and their capacities to participate in the legislative process in a gender-responsive manner.

3. Raising awareness on gender equality and the importance of women’s leadership among all Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, as well as among the general public, including by raising the visibility of women leaders in all spheres and sectors of society.

4. Supporting capacity building across the Parliament in gender mainstreaming and gender-responsive budgeting and costing, and to encourage the application of these tools in parliamentary work.

5. Undertaking reviews of select legislation from a gender perspective to understand their impact on gender equality themes or with differential impacts on individuals of different genders.

Mindful of the need for partnership to truly advance the goal of gender equality across the length and breadth of Jamaica, the Minister of Culture, Entertainment, Gender and Sport, Hon. Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange had this to say at the establishment of the Bicameral Women's Caucus:

“As women, we value our men. We understand that the greatest potential for peace and stability within our communities resides in a robust partnership with our men as we strive for the common cause of sustainable prosperity for all our people. Women’s rights must never be seen as being in competition with the rights of our men. It must be anchored in the promotion of human rights for all,” she said.

One of the other initiatives undertaken by the government to achieve gender equality is to reach out and develop the next cadre of female leaders by fostering within them an interest in public leadership. As a result of this, Jamaica, for the first time, will host an all-female sitting of Parliament for young women, aged 18 to 23, to coincide with the observance of International Women’s Day 2023. This special sitting will be held under the Young Women’s Leadership (YWL) Initiative, which is a programme of the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN Women) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and is designed to support the women leaders of tomorrow by helping them to develop the requisite knowledge, skills, and networks that will prove helpful to them as current and future catalysts for change.

For a very long time, the responsibility of championing women’s rights and gender equality was shouldered mainly by women Members of Parliaments the world over but the focus of that responsibility has now shifted to the institution of Parliament itself as being representative of the interests of all citizens. This involves viewing the institution through a critical lens, recognising the hurdles that thwart the entry and full participation of women into political and other spheres of leadership and the taking of deliberate steps to ensure that the Parliament is one that is founded on gender equality.

There are several concrete steps that Parliaments the world over can take to help them become more gender sensitive. The first could be having quotas for women in the Parliamentary Committees to ensure broader representation and more diverse viewpoints in the legislative process. The other has to do with addressing the issue of violence against women in politics (VAW-P) which is faced by several countries across the world and can serve to deter women’s full participation in the political process. This phenomenon can either be in the form of in-person or via social media, and may range from micro-aggression to physical violence. The third could be the appointment of Parliamentarians as ‘gender champions’ who can play an active role in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment within the Parliament and beyond.

Jamaicans have a saying that “we likkle but we tallawah” which means that though we may have a tiny size, we have outsized influence and punch far above our weight. Though we are fewer in numbers, female Parliamentarians are undoubtedly making their presence and impact felt in Parliament which has real world impact on the lives of every Jamaicans as well as implications for our journey towards full gender equality as a nation.

Symbolic representation does matter, and I will never cease to be amazed as I give talks to the youth in my constituencyespecially girls - and I discern within them their apprehending of a new reality that they too can come from humble beginnings and be able to have a national impact. There can be no nobler task than introducing individuals to the vistas of new possibilities and having a gender sensitive Parliament will go a long way in ensuring that every citizen irrespective of gender will have the opportunity to achieve their heart’s desires.