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Where is the once-vibrant PNP Women's Movement?

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  • Where is the once-vibrant PNP Women's Movement?

    Where is the once-vibrant PNP Women's Movement?
    Sunday Observer news analysis

    Sunday, December 25, 2011



    No prison bar can ever defeat /The women who will never retreat /Oh women of Jamaica /Unite, unite and fight. — Excerpt from The (PNP) Women’s Song
    AS it is with the churches and most organised entities in Jamaica, women are the backbone of the political parties. The absence of the once-vibrant People’s National Party Women’s Movement (PNPWM) in the 2011 election campaign is palpable.

    ANDERSON-MANLEY... led the PNP Women’s Movement when it reached its zenith in the ideologically intense 1970s
    1/4

    A long-standing party insider suggested that since the departure of the late Michael Manley from the political stage, the women’s movement has lost its importance and has all but died under new leader, Portia Simpson Miller, who has shown little interest in the organisation.

    Jennifer Edwards, the former president of the PNPWM, remains the only known name in the movement which has been reduced to issuing the occasional news release, the most recent of which was a weak protestation that a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate mentioned from the platform that that party had pretty women among its candidates.

    “I don’t believe that the persons that we are selecting to represent us ought to be selected on the basis that they are pretty women. I hope that the women who have been selected have a lot more to offer than that,” she was quoted as saying. “I believe it is an insult to them and their intelligence and to women, generally, for the only attributes to be flaunted on a political platform to be their external beauty. I believe that there should be a lot more that they bring to the table than that,” she added.

    The PNP Women’s Movement reached its zenith in the ideologically intense 1970s when it was led by Beverley Anderson-Manley and had people like Maxine Henry-Wilson, Heather Robinson, Marjorie Taylor, Alethia Barker, Karlene Kirlew Robertson, and an array of other bright, articulate women, all of whom are now far removed from the movement.

    Its mission statement proudly proclaimed: “To mobilise, motivate and educate the members of the Movement, of the Party and of the Society to accept that they have equal rights and responsibilities in every aspect of spiritual, cultural, social, economic and political sphere of life; to encourage, foster and promote women’s integration in all areas of national development; and to protect and promote the rights, equality and dignity of women.”

    At its peak, the PNPWM exercised awesome clout in the PNP, and was able to influence far-reaching legislation including those that decreed equal pay for women; the Maternity Leave Act, forcing employers to give pregnant women three months’ leave, two of them with full pay; and the Status of Children or ‘bastard’ Act which abolished the concept of illegitimate children born to unwed parents.

    When the United Nations launched the International Year of Women, which represented a massive breakthrough for the gentler sex, Anderson-Manley proudly led a Jamaican delegation to the UN in 1975 to receive the adulation of many Third World women leaders.

    The women of the movement became critical to the success of the PNP in elections from the 1970s to the early -1990s. But with the departure of Manley, who had given full encouragement to the PNPWM, the organisation began a precipitous slide. It found its voice from time to time under PJ Patterson, but never regained its former pride of place. Under Portia Simpson Miller, the movement lost all its remaining lustre, as members complained that she sidelined those regarded as competitors. Edwards, the former Spanish Town mayor and Portia loyalist, tried valiantly to keep the movement going but to no avail.

    In a complete reversal of political party history, the JLP, which had a women’s group called National Organisation of Women (NOW) that never attained the heights of the PNPWM, has now fielded more women in the elections than the PNP. It’s a measure of how women have lost power in the party of Norman Manley.


    Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1hc4BuR7B


    BLACK LIVES MATTER

  • #2
    Originally posted by Mosiah View Post
    In a complete reversal of political party history, the JLP, which had a women’s group called National Organisation of Women (NOW) that never attained the heights of the PNPWM, has now fielded more women in the elections than the PNP. It’s a measure of how women have lost power in the party of Norman Manley.
    The Herald could not be more biased if it tried.

    So, fielding more female candidates means...exactly what!?!?!


    BLACK LIVES MATTER

    Comment


    • #3
      This from you who love talk bout Brown People occupying positions.

      Comment


      • #4
        And I will continue to talk about it. Why not? A suh wi black people dem a Jamaica fool-fool?

        Mi nuh tink suh. Nah stop talk di tings dat mek unnu uptown people uncomfortable!


        BLACK LIVES MATTER

        Comment


        • #5
          Well, if yuh love call women gyal, no wonder they are leaving in droves...

          Comment


          • #6
            what wrong with the word "gyal"

            suh u against Louise Bennett NOW?

            Comment


            • #7
              Context. Man and gyal?

              Seems like a diss.

              Comment


              • #8
                how is it a diss?

                if she did call a "big man"- bwoy ......mi coulda understand


                but remember it was Audley she a answer to.......he is a man

                Comment


                • #9
                  Awright, from now on it goes like this.

                  A bare narrative me a deal with, ignoring questions.

                  Mi aggo drop it like you.

                  Your questions are really narratives as you close off your mind to any invading argument. No point in continuing. Ice cream is ice cream and not to be confused.
                  Last edited by Willi; December 26, 2011, 11:30 AM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Jus call di bwoy an idiot and dun nuh? Yuh too polite iyah...

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      lol...........................no man just debating...................you defend a point until someone can show seh it wrong ...........by using logics............logically weh mi seh FOLLOW


                      U TEK THIS THING TOO SERIOUS

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        ********** head BWOY........ guh PUSH yuh head inna u ******** weh a *******............AND AVOID MI............AND STOP stink up mi comment with u **********...........CHUH
                        Last edited by Mosiah; December 26, 2011, 07:48 PM.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Skeng D View Post
                          tampon head BWOY........ guh PUSH yuh head inna u madda PU.SSY weh a SHRIVLE............AND AVOID MI............AND STOP stink up mi comment with u monthly DISCHARGE...........CHUH

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            No man argument is not a matter of life and death.....



                            It's more important than that!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I know...............cuz not becuz u see mi a reason along that line..........mean mi agree with it................mi just like exercise mi mind like that

                              Comment

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