The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION Senator Maxine Seymour questioned the timeline of implementation and changes to several pieces of legislation affecting Bahamian women as another International Women’s Day was observed with no amendments passed for the marital rape law.

Ms Seymour spoke to reporters yesterday on the sidelines of an event and questioned the government’s commitment to the fight against gender bias.

Ms Seymour said: “Considering I’m not a lawyer, what I would say is that laws are made in the Parliament of The Bahamas... citizens also have the power to propose, to push and to write to their representatives to say that, ‘look this is what I need.’

“I think in this country politicians get it twisted. You are a servant of the people. And what the people need to do is take their power and say ‘you work for me this is my priority. I’m a woman, I need you right now to pass this, not just table it, but pass it and implement it’,” Ms Seymour said.

Ms Seymour added: “Being a Bahamian citizen should be enough to have equality in your country and that’s not where we are as women. We have a ways to go in terms of implementation of certain outstanding legislation that would bring us on par with other countries around the world.

“Right now we are not where we need to be. We have made strides, and I am proud of the strides we’ve made, but women’s issues need to be a priority and they need to be a priority now,” she said.

Ms Seymour also spoke about issues with laws and policies regarding child support for single parents, especially single mothers.

“The reality is even in terms of parenting, if a child is born it is more likely that. . . upbringing will impact the mother more significantly than it would the father,” she said.

“So women have to figure out childcare, they have to get back to work, they have to always prioritise the children and in most cases the men go scot-free. The majority of the burden is on single mothers who head households,” Ms Seymour said.

“Even in terms of our child support payments. We need to make sure that those amounts sufficiently cover the cost of living in our country. Inflation has gone up. We have to make sure that what we’re giving the women to support the children is enough to really help with the kids,” Ms Seymour said.

Ms Seymour once again drew attention to the funding from the government allocated to a new women’s shelter, which was announced in the Senate last June. She wanted to know what progress government had made on the development of the shelter from then to now.

“Where are we with it? Are we just going to sit on it? Has land been identified and assigned in terms of this shelter? Has a request for proposals gone out, so that we could get designs and contractors?

“Every day that shelter is not built, you have another woman who is in danger and who needs somewhere safe to stay. And so these things need to be a priority for the government,” she said.