GENDER PARITY: Govt. appoints two women out of 12 Senate appointments

GENDER PARITY: Govt. appoints two women out of 12 Senate appointments
Senate and House of Assembly in Parliament Parliament Square.

FNM names two women of four Senate appointments

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip Davis has come under fire for his Senate picks with only two women being named out of the 12 spots.

In a leaked Cabinet letter, dated October 1, Davis advised the Governor-General of his remaining Senate appointments.

Joining Minister of Economics and Leader of Government Business in the Senate Michael Halkitis and Attorney General Ryan Pinder on the government side will be:

Senator L. Lashell Adderley
Senator Barry Griffin
Senator Tyrell O. Young
Senator James A. Turner-Rolle
Senator Kirkland A. Russell
Senator Ronald C. Duncombe
Senator Quinton Lightbourne
Senator Hon. Randy Rolle

Following consultation with Leader of the Opposition and Free National Movement Dr Hubert Minnis, Davis has advised the governor-general to appoint:

Senator Randy Rolle
Senator Darron Pickstock
Senator Dr. Erecia Hepburn

Eyewitness News further understands that Minnis has also completed his Senate slate which will include Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield, former Pinewood MP Reuben Rahming, former Seabreeze candidate Maxine Seymour and former Chief Operations Officer in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit Viana Gardiner.

The appointments come on the heels of five women have being appointed to  Cabinet positions for the first time in Bahamian history.

In an interview with Eyewitness News, Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas called the appointments lackluster and insisted that

“This administration, in its appointments, has given no indication of interest in gender equality or appropriate representation of women. We need political quotas to push political parties and the Government of The Bahamas to prioritize increasing the number of women participating in frontline politics,” Wallace said.

“We remain concerned about the positions of the women and men representing us. We are given little information about them, their values, or their motivations, and we are left to find out, bit by bit, as information is leaked and ignorant statements are made.”

She asserted that since both major political parties — the Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party — announced their candidates for the 2021 General election, it was clear that they had “no interest in working toward gender parity”.

“There are people, particularly representatives of organizations, that claim to value human rights and support gender equality that has been silent for the duration of political campaigning and, worse, celebrated the unremarkable number of women now in Parliament,” Wallace continued.

“Whenever we settle for mediocrity, respond to the maintenance of the status quo, and regard the bare minimum as though it is progress, we give people in positions of power permission to continue to fail us. Seven women in Parliament is not enough. Two women in Cabinet is not enough. Two women in the Senate is not enough.”

Wallace further underscored The Bahamas’ international obligation to provide representation at the most critical level.

“We cannot wait for the next election season. We have to start identifying feminists, women who believe in human rights, and women who value and will represent all women, including LBTQ+ women, women with disabilities, and women experiencing poverty,” she said.

“We need to identify them, champion, and make supporting them irresistible to the masses. We need to do this while we agitate for a political quota and pressure political parties to prove their commitment to gender equality and women’s political participation—which they readily say in international spaces such as State reports and responses to the CEDAW Committee—with changes to their own constitutions and the development of leadership training programs, campaign funds, and platform building for women. What we have now is not good enough; we have to work toward better, higher quality representation together.”

Among those women appointed were Englerston MP Glenys Hanna-Martin as minister of education, technology, and vocational training; Elizabeth MP Jobeth Coleby-Davis as Minister of Transport and Housing; Pineridge MP Ginger Moxey as Minister of Grand Bahama; Golden Gates MP Pia Glover-Rolle as Minister of State for Public Service; and Marathon MP Lisa Rahming as Minister of State for Social Services and Urban Development.

A record number of seven women candidates won House of Assembly seats in the 2021 General Election with incumbent Hanna-Martin yielding nearly 75 percent of the votes in her constituency.

There were five women serving in the previous House of Assembly, while men made up the remaining 34 parliamentarians.

There was only one sitting woman minister in the Cabinet — initially, former Minister of Social Services and Urban Development and former Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle, and after her resignation, former Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction Parker-Edgecombe.

Hanna-Martin remains the longest-serving woman parliamentarian in the history of The Bahamas, serving a consecutive four terms as Englerston MP, since 2002. Her latest win will be her fifth term serving in the role.

About Sloan Smith

Sloan Smith is a senior digital reporter at Eyewitness News, covering a diverse range of beats, from politics and crime to environment and human interest. In 2018, Sloan received a nomination for the “Leslie Higgs Feature Writer of The Year Award” from The Bahamas Press Club for her work with Eyewitness News.