Beverley Anderson-Manley
There is something about polls that people get very emotional about particularly when the results are not what they expect or when the results do not fit into their reality. People also forget that a poll is taken within a specific time frame with a poll population chosen that is representative of the country.
Polls are a snapshot. We know only too well how changeable we are as human beings. This is why it is important that political leaders look at polls as an instrument for guidance. When a leader is winning at the polls, it is a great feeling and the temptation is to accept the poll as ultimate reality. In spite of this, polls are influential.
Recent polls are testing not only objective but subjective leadership criteria. So the population being tested is not only asked about competency and management skills, but about caring attributes - those traditionally associated with women.
It is gratifying to see that these "soft skills" are now being elevated to "hard skills" in the polls. In a way, this is hardly surprising. As our debt climbs beyond the trillion-dollar mark and we borrow to service this debt, although poverty is declining, we are seeing working poor, inter-generational poor and chronic poor.
Living In Poverty
Imagine what it must be like to know that your grandparents were poor, your parents are poor and it is likely that there is no way out for you. These Jamaicans who live in poverty are "sick and tired of being sick and tired". We may scoff at a hug and a kiss, but they welcome this new experience. They want a leader whom they perceive not only as a caring/loving leader, but one who understands their pain, one who has experienced what it is like to come from the "bowels of the working class". That is the snapshot of Portia Simpson Miller that the polls capture.
Cast in this light, the euphoria around Portia Simpson Miller just makes sense. We saw it from the time of the PNP presidential campaign when delegates felt "the woman" was the one to win the "fifth term" because she had these "soft skills". Any "hard skills" she needed, she could pay for and it was incumbent on the other party leaders who could provide these skills to do so.
Party Loyalty
Throughout her nearly 40 years in politics, Portia has had a consistent theme. Whenever she spoke, the emphasis was on "poor people" and that little girl on Payne Avenue in her constituency who still had to eliminate her waste in a scandal bag and bathe under a standpipe in the open yard. In addition to this she has been a loyal party member and leader. Through thick and thin, she has stayed with the party, working with the party, going on the road for the party whether it was in trouble or not and always supporting the leader of the party - never disloyal to him. Loyalty takes on tremendous significance in a political party. PNP delegates feel her time has come. Then there is the convergence of decades of struggle in the women's movement, internationally, regionally, locally and within the PNP Women's Movement.
Years of struggle since the revival of feminism in the late 1960s and International Women's Year in 1975 are beginning to pay off as we see more and more women leading their countries. Women are getting access and now all eyes are focused on these women to see what they do with this access. These women are the role models and much is therefore expected of them, particularly when they have challenges like the ones we have here in Jamaica - where the majority of our people have high expectations and want to see concrete differences taking place in their lives and quickly.
When women and men work together, it can make a difference. As the saying goes, "we have come a long way baby, but there is a long way to go".
Beverley Manley is a political scientist, corporate coach and gender specialist.
