The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday vowed to assist with more women being elected to office by working with organisations such as the Free National Movement's Women's Association.

Dr Minnis added more women need to run for the House of Assembly and become Cabinet ministers, describing this as a matter of "great urgency".

The prime minister also outlined the FNM's long history of promoting gender equality, adding his party has a "better record" of advancing women's rights compared to the Official Opposition, which Dr Minnis claimed has mostly paid "lip service" to this cause.

Dr Minnis made these comments while speaking at the FNM's Women's Association installation of executives ceremony yesterday.

Addressing the executives, Dr Minnis said: "I want to especially charge you to help to develop a new generation of female leaders within the party.

"We especially need more women to run for the House of Assembly and to sit in the Cabinet of The Bahamas.

"This is a matter of great urgency. I will work with the Women's Association and others to help to identify and to promote more women being elected to office."

Dr Minnis said much like the Torchbearers, the FNM's youth organisation, the Women's Association is charged with bringing a "new generation of leaders" to the party.

While on this note, he celebrated the "overwhelming success" of the Torchbearer's convention, which was held August 15-16.

"The convention was bigger and more dynamic than the (Progressive Liberal Party) PLP National Convention the week before," Dr Minnis said.

He continued to throw jabs at the PLP as he outlined the advancements in gender equality the FNM made after coming to office in 1992, and ending the PLP's 25 years of successive terms.

"The FNM has a better record of advancing the rights of women than the PLP, who have paid mostly lip service to the advancement of women," he said.

"When we came to office after 1992, we required that male and female officers engaged in the public service be treated equally regardless of marital status. The FNM did that, not the PLP, even though they had 25 years to promote equality.

"The FNM ended the practice, whereby male public officers were routinely promoted over women, and winning higher salaries, because they were seen as the principal 'bread-winner', even though it was often a woman who was the main 'bread-winner'. The FNM did that not the PLP, even though they had 25 years to promote equality.

"The FNM abolished the dower and made surviving spouses, regardless of gender, heir to the matrimonial home. The FNM did that not the PLP, even though they had 25 years to promote equality.

"Following the 1997 election, both the speaker of the House of Assembly and the president of the Senate were female. The FNM did that not the PLP, even though they had 25 years to promote equality."

Last month, former FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner insisted that that regardless of what female politicians bring to the table they aren't respected by men who have dominated the political arena.

Mrs Butler-Turner made these comments while discussing the state of politics in the country on the television show, Beyond the Headlines.

Asked if women are respected at the Cabinet level, the former Cabinet minister said: "No, absolutely not.

"Well, it's very clear that you know if you have someone who is able to articulate, who is able to process, who is able to start to give a vision, the first thing that people look at is that a man or is that a woman? Well, if it is a woman then she needs to go and sit down.

"If it's a man whether he can articulate or not we rather have him than her."

During her time in the FNM, Mrs Butler-Turner failed twice in her bid to unseat Dr Minnis as party leader. She lost to Dr Minnis during a convention in 2014 and in 2016, she withdrew from the leadership race at the last minute.

Last October, statistics presented by Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell revealed women hold the majority of senior leadership positions in nearly every public sector except politics and law enforcement.

"In politics, five percent of Cabinet ministers, 12 percent of parliamentarians and 43 percent of senators are women," he said.

In the May 2017 general election, 40 of the 194 nominated candidates were women.