Several women's rights organizations and activists are denouncing the derogatory statement that was reportedly made by a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) stalwart councilor at a recent leadership candidacy event.
According to reports, the councilor said Glenys Hanna-Martin, Member of Parliament for Englerston, who is also running for party leadership, needed to know her place was in the kitchen, suggesting limitations on women’s political participation.
Rise Bahamas Founder Terneille Burrows said, "We are not going to stand for anyone demeaning another person on the basis of them being a woman, or man for that matter. Until we have prominent people that are willing to denounce such behavior, the dehumanization will continue.”
The PLP has not denied the claim or denounced the alleged statement. They need to act in accordance with the values they expose.
“The interests of our wider society are undermined when we allow prominent people and institutions to remain silent in the face of discrimination. Bahamians are no longer going to tolerate being manipulated by political machinery,” Burrows added.
Marion Bethel, Committee Member on the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) called for a shift in Bahamian culture. “Misogyny, the hatred of women, runs deep within our Bahamian culture. Until we, both women and men, begin to understand and resist this hatred, we will all continue to live crippled and diminished lives, and so will our children, their children and their children’s children.”
Equality Bahamas Director Alicia Wallace noted the link between dismissive comments about individual women and prevailing attitudes toward the work and value of women. “The casual manner with which people demean and diminish the work, contributions, and lives of women is a symptom of a patriarchal, misogynistic ideology that pervades family life, workplace culture, political strata, and national affairs.”
Wallace noted that while statements need to be rebuked and withdrawn, corrective action also needs to ensue. “Systemic issues must be understood and addressed so we are able to identify problematic statements like this one as more than words, but as rampant, entrenched misogyny in practice. This is indicative of the need for gender mainstreaming to happen in tandem with public dialogue.”
The persistent and intentional undervaluing of women’s contributions to society — including household management, commitments to religious institutions, economic participation, and the exercise of civic responsibility — continues to affect views of gender and serves as a barrier to entry in male-dominated industries and spaces.
Donna Nicolls, deputy director of the Bahamas Crisis Center and director of Bahamas Women’s Watch, along with women’s rights activist Noelle Nicolls agreed that consideration of our own biases and how they affect the daily lives of others is an important step towards shifting the thinking and practices that disadvantage women, stunting national growth. Corporate entities, political parties, educational institutions and civic organizations must act.
The following organizations have signed on in agreement with the attached:
The Bahamas Crisis Centre
Equality Bahamas
Rise Bahamas Bahamas Sexual Violence & Child Abuse Prevention
HeadKnowles
Bahamas Women's Watch
Marion Bethel, UN CEDAW Committee Member
BTIU
DMARCO Foundation
Temple Law Chambers
