By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterWOMEN'S GROUPS yesterday hailed landmark legislation which will give equal shares to spouses involved in a failed marriage or common-law relationship. Female MPs and others gave a standing ovation when the House of Represen-tatives on Tuesday passed the Family Property (Rights of Spouses) Act following passage by the Senate last Friday.
The Act, among other things, grants a 50-50 split in sharing property and also places equal significance on the monetary and domestic contributions of married and unmarried couples.
Dr. Glenda Simms, executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs, told The Gleaner yesterday that the Bill's passage was long in coming, having been around for decades.
"I think it's a great day for Jamaica and all of us," she said. "We've been struggling on these issues for a long time, so this is an important milestone in our development."
Noting that even married women are being pushed out of relationships nowadays, Dr. Simms said the Act makes Jamaica more progressive than Britain where certain social issues are concerned, seeing it was from Britain that Jamaica inherited many of its laws.
"What is most significant about the Act is that it recognises women's unpaid work as being on par with monetary contribution," she said, adding that men should not feel threatened by the Act.
"They should not feel left out of the picture as the law protects them too," said Dr. Simms. "Men will benefit because the law is gender-neutral, so they should be happy too."
Also heaping praise on the passing of the Act was Mar-garette Macaulay, attorney-at-law and an advocate for women and children's rights.
"I expected it (Bill) to be passed as the Government was determined to pass it very quickly, as they said talks have been going on about it for over 30 years," she noted.
Mrs. Macaulay said she was particularly impressed that the Act grants married and common-law spouses the right to indicate the nature of their respective holding in property they own or will acquire, before the official start to their union.
However, Mrs. Macaulay does not support the provision in the Act that reduces the fraction of shares to which children are entitled in an estate, whenever a parent dies intestate.
Under the Act children will be entitled to 50 per cent or less of the estate, whereas under the Intestates Estate and Property Charges Act, they are entitled to two-thirds of the estate.
For her part, Dundeen Ferguson, President of Woman Incorporated, said her organisation was very happy the Act had been passed.
"I hope the Joint Select Committee (that examined the Bill) took everybody's views in mind, to ensure that both sides are protected," she said. "It is timely. We have been pushing for it for a very long time."
