Heather Robinson, Contributor
LAST WEEK, I listened with interest as two of my friends (female) had an animated discussion about where they came from and where they are now in life. All three of us as women grew up in rural Jamaica and were successful in the Common Entrance Examination, which gave us a place in a high school. As children we were all warned about the consequences of not getting a 'good education', and the alternatives that would face us young women. These alternatives ranged from cutting cane to selling fish. And so, as my friends and I gave thanks for the fact that had we not been the beneficiary of a 'good education', we would perhaps all be grandmothers 'mining' our children's babies in some rural district.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
On Tuesday, Jamaica celebrated with the rest of the world International Women's Day. Reflecting on the significance of the day, I remembered the discussion my friends and I had last week. And we remembered Michael Manley. Like many other thousands of Jamaican women who received a university education in the seventies, we always remember and give thanks for Michael Manley. There are many who will acknowledge that had it not been for the provision of a student loan and boarding grant from the Student Loan Bureau, none of us would now be able to say that we are graduates of the University of the West Indies and the College of Arts Science and Technology (now UTECH).
And so while we celebrate International Women's Day, one friend said that she is happy that she was never the beneficiary of some of Michael's other 'gifts' to the Jamaican woman. This reference was to the Maternity Leave With Pay law . So therefore she does not have any grandchildren to 'mine'. But the other friend was a beneficiary of that law and is now the proud mother of a young adult son.
Young women in Jamaica who now take maternity leave for granted need to be reminded that prior to the enactment of this act in the seventies, this facility was non-existent. And so as women, we give thanks to Michael Manley and all those who worked with him to ensure that maternity leave is now a right.
There are two other pieces of social legislation that were implemented under the leadership of Michael Manley that have had a tremendous impact on the life of the Jamaican woman. These are the Equal Pay for Equal Work and the Status of Children Act that removed the bastardy status from children born outside of marriage. It seems hard to believe that at the start of the decade of the seventies, women who were doing the identical work of their male counterparts were not in all cases receiving the same remuneration. Yes that was the reality that Michael Manley changed for the Jamaican woman. "No bastard nuh deh again" is a line from a popular political song of the seventies, which makes reference to the fact that all children became equal in law regardless of whether their mother was married to their father. This has created not only a child with legal rights, but also a child who received moral rights to their paternity.
FOUNDATION LAID
Michael Manley laid a foundation for the growth, independence and development of the Jamaican woman and we who are heirs to this legacy of the seventies must continue his work and encourage his successors to do more to ensure that the glass ceiling that restricts the advancement of the modern Jamaican woman is shattered. This is one of the best ways we can honour Michael's memory.
In celebrating the achievements of the Jamaican woman, during this week, we do so as a group of women who have made significant strides in the last 30 years and we acknowledge and salute the contribution made to this process by Jamaica's fourth prime minister, Michael Norman Manley. We give thanks for the fact that he loved us so much that he worked to ensure that we, in the first instance, had and have access to university education, maternity leave, equal pay for equal work and the removal of the word "bastard" from the vocabulary of the Jamaican child. Indeed, "everyone lawful".
Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former member of Parliament.
