The Tribune

By Ian Bethel Bennett

Apparently, there are a number of women who argue that women are empowered and have achieved full equality in the Bahamas. As my last piece examined, there are some serious inequalities that allow for women’s exploitation in society. This piece challenges some women’s perceptions that due to their positions of relative power all women have equality with men. They see themselves as empowered. Notwithstanding that, as the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) pointed out, women are under represented in Bahamian public life. They are under represented in Parliament and in other high-earning positions. Yet, some few women who are in those positions take it that all women are equally empowered.

In trade policy studies there is a book called “Kicking Away the Ladder “that examines how big countries created robust economies through protectionist practices. Once they achieved this, they insisted that all countries play on an equal playing field by reducing all barriers to trade that could be viewed as protectionist, such as customs tariffs. This made it impossible for small, developing countries to create robust economies that would allow them to compete on that fabled equal playing field. It seems that the same apparently holds true for gender.

In Teacher Magazine on March 24, 2010 Bill Ivey writes ‘Post- Feminist Students? Think Again’, where he discusses the simply negative response people, especially young women, have to the word feminism, and to what he then calls enlightened sexism. Quoting from Susan J. Douglas he writes: “Enlightened sexism… insists that women have made plenty of progress because of feminism—indeed, full equality has allegedly been achieved”.

Ivey states that “[t]his is a particularly difficult concept to fight”. The article is a fantastic deconstruction of the way young women think today. As many women push for equality and work to enact laws that insist on women’s right to equality to men, young women think that it is cool and empowering for them to dress up in sexy, scant clothes and attract a man. That is liberation.

Liberation and empowerment are multi-faceted concepts. While young boys are encouraged to leave school in order to support their families, young girls are encouraged to stay in school. The awareness that girls will need an education to excel in the world is keen. Meanwhile, the assumption is that boys can succeed without it. This is, however, untrue in the long term.

Both males and females need education to succeed. Moreover, as the statistics show, there are more educated women in the country, yet there are more men in top positions. The fact that there are many women in middle management in particular spheres but very few in upper management and precious few in key political posts, except for Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt, now retired, Janet Bostwick, also retired, Glenis Hanna-Martin, Alison Maynard-Gibson and Loretta Butler-Turner, among a few others, does not strike people as odd.

When Janet Bostwick addressed the assembly at the women’s suffrage symposium she observed that women had actually lost ground over the last few years. The gains that had been achieved by the suffrage movement were taken for granted. Some young women say they do not need feminism, that feminism is a bad word, and they are happy to become their husband’s property. The irony of such language and precepts does not appear incongruous with equality and empowerment.

While there are more women working in what were once perceived as male professions, men of a certain class and ethnicity remain at the helm of those professions. Furthermore, while there may be more women in employment at particular ages, when they are of childbearing age their numbers drop off again. Fewer women opt for political office.

All of these facts speak to inherent inequalities that are apparently eclipsed by the fact that there are more female than male high school graduates, more women than men attending college and graduating. Despite that, there are still more men in real power-broking positions. That large numbers of young women engage in transactional relationships must also underscore inequality. Women are also less likely to support female political candidates.

While it is true that the realities progressed since the 1950s and 1960s and the heyday of the feminist movement and the struggle to secure the right to vote in the Bahamas, it strikes an alarming cord that even the women who fought for the vote and for other rights can state that women have lost ground. Yet still, a group of young women, unaware of the significance of the suffrage movement, argue that equality has been achieved and it is alright now. In the final analysis, empowerment and equality are tied to class, ethnicity, race, education and gender. Is this perceived empowerment real or is patriarchy alive and well and encouraged by some women who have seemingly arrived?

• Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett, Associate Professor in the School of English Studies at the College of the Bahamas, has written extensively on race and migration in the Bahamas, cultural creolisation and gender issues. Direct questions and comments to iabethellbennett@yahoo.co.uk.