The report recommended instituting a quota, rather than a target, of 30 percent of women in leadership positions. Parties trumpet the importance of gender equality but "shirk active commitment," it said. In the last Jamaican parliament, no committees were headed by women, it said. While women often make up the majority of party membership, they perform low-level jobs as field and election workers and campaigners that seldom translate into leadership positions, it said.Įven after being elected to parliament, women struggle to take leadership positions.
Women in political leadership help advocate for pay equity, just inheritance laws and maternity leave, the report said. "One of these areas is political representation," she said. The 30 percent target was part of a national gender policy set out in 2011.Įducation among Jamaican women does not lag that of men, "yet in some areas in Jamaica we are still forced to ask, 'Where are the women?'" said Elsie Laurence Chounoune, UNDP's representative to Jamaica, at an event on Tuesday releasing the report in Kingston.
Women make up just 20 percent of Jamaica's cabinet ministers, senators and mayors, it said. KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Jamaican women are largely cut off from positions of political power and need affirmative action as well as commitment from political parties to boost opportunities and train women for leadership, according to a United Nations report.ĭespite having had some prominent women leaders such as former Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, the Caribbean island falls short of its own target of having women in 30 percent of decision-making positions, said the report by the U.N.
Jamaica falls short of its own target of having women in 30 percent of decision-making positions
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