Hartley Neita, Gleaner Writer

1993: Lady Bustamante (right) and Mrs. Iris Collins-Williams are in an affectionate embrace at the Ward Theatre as they joined in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jamaica Labour Party. Lady Bustamante, wife of National Hero Sir Alexander Bustamante, founder of the party, was also honoured. Collins has the distinction of being the first woman to be elected a Member of Parliament, as the winner of a St. James seat. - File Photos

THE FIRST woman to be elected to a Municipal Council was Mary Morrison Knibb. She won a seat on the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Council in 1939 through the support of and campaigning of a group of some of the most formidable women in Jamaica.

It was a historic first. The men who fought against her election were flabbergasted; the women celebrated. One man even said he would prefer if women remained at what they were good at - managing households and rearing babies.

Morris-Knibb subsequently sought to win a seat in the House of Representatives in 1944, but was soundly defeated. In 1944, the only woman who won a seat was Iris Collins in St. James. Women more nationally known such as Edith Dalton James lost.

Before 1944, the qualifications to become an elected member of the House discriminated against women. These called for, among other things, "a clear annual income of £150 arising from lands belonging to him in his own right or in the right of his wife. Every male over the age of 21 was entitled to vote, together with a number of income qualifications. Women, however, could not become eligible to vote until they were 25 years of age, paid taxes of at least £2 per year and, in addition, they had to be literate.

These restrictions were removed in 1944 when all Jamaicans - men and women - over the age of 21 were entitled to vote and women no longer had to go through the indignity of taking a literacy test to prove they could read and write.

Form of dress for women

( L - R ) Edith Dalton James, Mrs. Amy Ashwood Garvey

The fact that no one ever expected women to be elected to the House of Representatives, Iris Collins made waves when she won and entered to take her seat without wearing a hat. The Speaker had to quickly consult the clerks and it was only then discovered that while there were regulations that women sitting in the Strangers' Gallery were required to wear hats, nothing in the Code of Conduct directed what form of dress or headgear should be worn by female members.

From one woman in Parliament in1944, there are now six. And there are some 13 women seeking to enter Gordon House after the next general elections.

And incidentally, Portia Simpson Miller is not first woman to be elected president of a political party in Jamaica. Before the 1944 General Election, there was a party - the JAG Smith Party and it was headed by Amy Ashwood Garvey, the first wife of Marcus Garvey. Later, during the 1960s, Madam Rose Leon also headed a political party. Both parties did not last long.

1975: Madam Rose Leon, the Minister of Local Government, addressing citizens of Perth Town, Trelawny.