Sandrea Falconer, minister with responsibility for gender affairs - File photo
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
On the occasion of International Women's Day Senator Sandrea Falconer, the minister with responsibility for gender affairs, today said in the Upper House that the number of women in the Senate is too low.
In a statement to the Senate, Falconer noted that the Upper House is comprised of approximately 25 per cent women.
Of the 21 members in the Senate, there are three on the Government side - Falconer, Angela Brown Burke and Imani Duncan Price - and two on the Opposition side - Kamina Johnson Smith and Marlene Malahoo Forte.
Falconer noted that 12.5 per cent of the seats in the House of Representatives are filled by women, although in the 2011 general elections, 35 per cent of the seats were contested by women.
She said this represented the willingness of women to offer themselves for political office, and a refusal to accept the old view that the woman's place is in the house, barefooted and pregnant.
According to Falconer, while there is more to be done in to empower women, the country has made great strides in its 50 years of independence.
She pointed to Portia Simpson Miller breaking becoming the country's first female Prime Minister, and Lorna Myers, the co-founder of Restaurants of Jamaica being inducted into the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica Hall of Fame, as examples of the strides made by women.
She also noted that 28.6 per cent of the country's mayors are women, and 56 per cent of its Permanent Secretaries.
At the same time women occupy key positions such as those of the Auditor General, Chief Justice, Director of Public Prosecutions and Solicitor General.
