Sacked South African deputy president Jacob Zuma waves to supporters outside Durban Magistrate's Court November 12, 2005. Formally indicted on corruption charges last year, Zuma was replaced by a woman. - REUTERS
ARE WOMEN less corrupt than men? If we believe this perception to be true, then why is it so? All of this has emanated from an interesting Gleaner news clip, coming out of South Africa.
It looked at the deliberate strategy of the ANC party (the current ruling party there), to field a high proportion of female candidates in the upcoming March 2006 local elections. Half of the ANC candidates will be women, as a deliberate tactic of empowering women in political office. However, what was of more interest to me was the statement that many South African voters believe that women are less corrupt than men.
South Africa, of course, is charting a lot of new directions in the world. It has given key Cabinet posts to women, such as the deputy president (albeit after a scandal that toppled the former deputy), Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Health and Mining. These are substantial posts, not just the 'fluff' ones normally given to women, pertaining to children and social affairs. No doubt South Africa felt some regret that it was not the first country in Africa that has elected a female leader, as that honour went to Liberia.
MANY FORMS
Returning to our main question, is it true that women are less corrupt? Corruption can cover many forms, but the overt ones tend to be those incidents where persons are jailed, dismissed or forced to resign. Is political corruption any different from public sector corruption that does not involve political figures (eg. on the wharfs, the roads, or at the various govt offices)? Doesn't the private sector also have its own instances of corrupt behavioural practices, such as the appointment of spouses, relatives, and sweethearts to senior positions, where they do not possess the education or competence to do a good job? Then again when it is the private sector risking its own money, there is no stench unless the private sector entity was say given a lucrative monopoly licence by the state.
There have been some well-known women guilty of corrupt practices (e.g Martha Stewart) but generally it has been a parade of males exposed as crooks in many instances. We also tend to focus on political corrupt practices since these are the ones that get the big headlines, unless it's like Enron or our own mid-1990s financial melt-down. In assessing whether it's true or not, we should also note that more men are in political office, or have senior responsibilities that put them in the position to carry out these nefarious activities.
What would be interesting would be a canvas of Jamaican voters to find out whether they also believe that Jamaican women are less corrupt than their male counterparts, especially given the recent leadership race in the P.N.P.
Are our women socialised to be more considerate and less likely to be parasitic? Are the men who engage in corrupt practices doing this so as to impress several women (the heady mix of money and power) or at the behest of a particular woman?
To confuse the issue even more, we could add the dynamics of class, race and sometimes even religious beliefs (or non-belief) to the mix. Who is to say that any gender is likely to be more inherently corrupt than another when we seek to identify what determines such a negative trait?
With the ratio of female parliamentarians in the House (upper and lower) quite small as a percentage of the total of 81 persons, it may be some time before we are able to empirically test the proposition that women are less corrupt than men in this country. The 40 years evidence of Jamaican Independence history however has seen only a few of our female political figures involved in what could be termed corrupt practices, although a few women on both sides have been tainted by links to 'dons' in their constituencies. What will be interesting as well, is, as the current ratio of female administrators and managers in Jamaica grows, there will be a greater test of the dictum that 'women are the spiritual upright half of mankind', notwithstanding the Genesis story of Eve.
