The Distinguished

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JAMAICA FIRST recognised
International
Women’s Day (IWD)
in 1978, almost 80 years
after it was declared. On
March 8, 2018, when we
celebrate and promote
the efforts to achieve
gender equality for the
40th time, we will
embrace this year’s theme
‘Press for Progress’, and
all that it represents.
The fact is that the goal of IWD
has still not been met, because gen-
der inequality exists today, and in
some quarters it is felt that this will
be the case for another 100 years.
Despite that daunting prospect, the
last century has recorded some
solid achievements that we should
rightly acknowledge.
Jamaica was the first English-
speaking country in the Caribbean
to achieve full universal adult suf-
frage on November 20, 1944. That
meant, among other things, that
women had the right to vote. And
when Iris Collins won the St James
North Western seat on December
12, 1944, she became the first
woman in the English-speaking
Caribbean to be elected to Parlia-
ment.
The Maternity
Leave Act came into
effect on December 31,
1979, and it provided the
right of female workers to
be granted maternity
leave, and in some cases,
paid maternity leave.
Importanly, it also
included a mechanism to prevent
women from being dismissed from
their employment because they are
pregnant, ensuring that the
employee is entitled to return to
work after maternity leave.
In December 2005, the Main-
tenance Act was amended to
include the right of both spouses to
seek maintenance from each other.
Previously, only a wife could make
such an application against a hus-
band, and common law spouses
were not recognised as potential
claimants for maintenance.
On April 1, 2006, the Property
(Rights of Spouses) Act came into
effect, which, among other things,
put the homemaker’s contribution
(which is traditionally the role of a
woman) on par with financial con-
tributions in determining the inter-
ests of spouses in the property.
In 2011, the Jamaican Consti-
tution was amended to include the
Charter of Fundamental Rights and
Freedoms. Among the provisions of
the Charter are the rights to equality
before the law and freedom from
discrimination on the ground of
being male or female.
With that said, there is much
more to be left to be achieved, and
the #MeToo movement in Americ,
underscored the need for a sexual
harassment, assault and abuse (par-
ticularly in the workplace) to end.
Jamaica has taken its own strides in
that direction with the Sexual
Harassment Bill, but the enact-
ment of that legislation is anxiously
being awaited.
There are other pieces of legisla-
tion that do not effectively pro-
mote gender equality. Below are
two examples:
1. Although the Employment
(Equal Pay for Men and Women)
Act Fundamental Rights (Addi-
tional Provisions) (Interim) Act
Housing Act is intended to ensure
that men and women are paid
equally for the same work, it
includes no monitoring mecha-
nism, and is not enforced particu-
larly because no data is collected to
compare salaries.
2. The Maternity Leave Act does
not account for the fact that
fathers need time off from work to
bond with their newborns and to
assist in raising children.
Perhaps the challenge to all
Jamaicans is to defy the projections
that gender equality cannot be
achieved in our lifetime, and agi-
tate for more aggressive changes to
promote the efforts.
Sherry Ann McGregor is a partner, media-
tor and arbitrator in the firm of Nunes
Scholefield DeLeon & Co. Please send
questions and comments to
or lifestyle@
THE GLEANER’S FLAIR MAGAZINE • MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018 39
MCGREGOR
{ LAWSOF EVE
Let us ‘Press for Progress’