Suffrage Roles In The 1920's

Men have dominated the political arena up until the 1920’s when suffrage movements were emerging worldwide. No matter where one would have turned, gender balancing was not even a thought. Women’s participation was nonexistent. In fact there had only been forty four women in the United States Senate since it was instituted in 1789. Their presence in the global political landscape was sparse. According to the old predominantly male political components, in America men were the presidents, congressmen, and the senators; in the Caribbean they were also the Prime ministers, the deputy prime ministers, and the opposition leaders. Additionally, they were the policy makers as well and likewise the voters. Women had no face much less a voice. As history

Smart, influential women had become conscious of the stench of archaic democracies and made a decision that they were going to intervene. The first woman in Congress Jeanette Rankin, a Montana suffragette who took her seat in the House of Representatives in 1917, did so three years before women in America were given the right to vote. In the Bahamas the right of women to vote was not yet realized. Right on this, determined, women began to feel that it was time to better prepare themselves to shatter the glass ceilings of the big boys club in parliaments around the world. They reckoned that education was a key factor to them being heard. Cognizant that unity is strength would-be female parliamentarians also aligned themselves with women organizations and support groups to strengthen their voice. Today’s women in politics are poised and ready to enter the political playing field in greater numbers more so now, than they had ever been. But is this the general consensus in the Bahamas and the Caribbean Region. Whereas globally women have made considerable inroads, what is the status of the women in the Caribbean region, and more specifically, the Bahamas since the era of Mary Eugenia Charles and the likes of

For instance, presently, there are two women serving as prime ministers in the region. Furthermore, they are namely the Most Honorable Portia Simpson Miller, the Prime Minister of Jamaica and the Honorable Kamala Persad Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Amidst the accomplishment of women of the Caribbean region there are Female opposition leaders like the Honorable Sharlene Cartwright Robinson of Turks And Caicos Islands, deputy prime ministers such as the Honorable Girlyn Miquel who currently serves as the deputy prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Bahamas’ very own Dame Lady Marguerite Pindling the country’s present Governor General. Women in politics are no longer opting on to fall prey to the negative stigma concerning their place being in the home taking care of responsibilities on the home front. Instead they are embracing every opportunity to be a part of the decisions being made in their perspective countries, and likewise, the Bahamian woman in politics is holding her