JAMAICA STEPS FORWARD

Ms Miller automatically becomes Jamaica’s prime minister until the next general election, due in 2007.

She will therefore be the second woman in the Anglophone Caribbean to occupy that position, the first being the late Dame Eugenia Charles of Dominica.

Ms Miller, 60, has had a long career in Jamaican politics, and had served as Minister of Local Government, Community and Sport in the present administration.

Her elevation to PNP leader may represent a shift in Jamaican politics, of which gender is only one aspect. Jamaican women at grassroots level have long been independent, with most of them earning their own living and raising families as single parents. This is the consequence of a history that has created a culture of non-commitment among males and a wide gap between rich and poor. And, educationally, Jamaica reflects the same pattern as in Trinidad and Tobago, with women outnumbering men at the tertiary level. In such a scenario, it is natural that women should become more prominent in politics.

However, Ms Miller’s election as PNP leader does not automatically make her a good electoral prospect for prime minister. Much will depend on her performance in that role over the next year, and it may well be that other PNP leaders have calculated that it would be better for their political careers to not assume the prime ministerial burden at this time.

Additionally, until Ms Miller’s victory, it was widely expected that National Security Minister Peter Phillips was the most likely prospect to lead the PNP. But Phillips’ bid foundered on Jamaica’s high murder rate, which has increased under his tenure.

That same situation may work against Ms Miller, if the Jamaican electorate sees the need for a strong leader in order to deal with the crime situation. On the other hand, since the crime situation is a direct consequence of Jamaican politicians making deals with the dons of Jamaica’s garrison communities, Ms Miller may have a significant advantage if, as a woman, she is perceived as less entwined with those "community leaders."

That our women are advancing faster than our men is not in doubt. However, it is also a fact that educational attainments and economic success do not translate into equal interest in politics for women. Worldwide, women represent only one in seven parliamentarians, one in ten cabinet ministers, and one in 20 heads of state. But this is not a simple consequence of sexist bias. Women themselves are less inclined to be interested in political careers, and this is true even of those societies which score well on gender equality in all other respects. Women are always under-represented in political and sporting associations, and over-represented in cultural, religious and social welfare organisations.

However, sexism is a factor, insofar as it prevents women from educational and economic parity with men.

Thus, in the Nordic nations, women make up 39 percent of parliamentarians; in the Americas, only 15 percent; in Asia and non-Nordic Europe, 14 percent; in the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa, 12 percent; and in the Arab world, where women are legally banned from parliamentary office in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Quatar, and the United Arab Emirates, only five percent of elected representatives are female.

Caribbean societies have laboured under a cultural paradox of patriarchal mores combined with matrifocal (women-headed) households. It may be that as more women enter political office, our political culture will change, with the dominant desire for power getting better with the need to serve the society. The election of Ms Miller to head the PNP is a step forward of Jamaica.