Women in Politics- Insufficient Representation

The local media last week highlighted a statement by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves that the governing Unity Labour party, which he heads, is likely to field three female candidates in the upcoming general elections.

Two of these have already been selected and there is widespread public speculation over the third. The opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) already has an incumbent Senator who contested last elections, and there is another unsuccessful candidate from the 2020 elections who has not yet been officially endorsed.

At present in our Parliament there is, sadly, no female elected Parliamentarian though there are five female senators, nominated by their respective parties and therefore beholden to the leadership of those parties. In fact, all four of the Government Senators are female, as is one of the two Opposition Senators. In addition, the fact that both the Speaker of the House of Assembly and her Deputy are women makes our situation look good, when compared to other countries in the Caribbean and, indeed, the rest of the world.

An examination of the global situation of Women in Politics, (statistics provided by UN Women) paints a far from rosy picture, half a century after the United Nations first endorsed International Women’s Day and set in train a series of initiatives leading to goals outlined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the well- publicised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

That is not to say that there has not been much progress where women are concerned. However, while there are far more female faces in the corridors of power than there were two or three decades ago, a detailed analysis indicates how far women are away from gender parity in the political field, and in other fields as well.

For instance, the UN statistics show that as at mid-year 2024, only 28 countries in the entire world have a female Head of State or Government. St Vincent and the Grenadines, with our female Governor General can take a bow here. However, the global body estimates that at the current rate, it would take 130 years to achieve gender parity in that prestigious post of power.

In regard to real decision-making power, women only had 23% of Cabinet posts in 2024, and there were only 15 countries in which women were the majority in

Cabinet. In addition, since some Cabinet portfolios are, by nature, more nationally influential than others, the UN Women noted that the ministries given to women tended to be in gender-related and social fields such as Women and Gender Affairs, and in social responsibilities. (Our Minister of Urban Development and Seaports, Senator Benarva Browne, is a notable exception, only that she is unelected). It should be of interest to women that females only headed the Finance Ministries in 14% of the countries, held the Ministry of Defence in only 12% of countries and, interestingly only 8% of Ministers of religious Affairs were women.

The statistics go on and on, but they all paint the same picture- the world, and women, have reached too far to accept the continuation of this unjust situation. Today, overwhelmingly women dominate the administrative ranks of most bodies, public and private alike, but the real decision-making power lies elsewhere.

As we approach International Women’s Day (IWD) this week, are our women satisfied with this state of affairs? Should not real matters of power like these be on the agenda and not just the perpetual ones like violence against women?

Maybe if women take stock of the wider situation and work to rectify it, bringing gender parity to bear on such inequality they would be in a different position to influence policy on the areas which affect them.