Resumen de The myth of equality: women in parliament
The English-speaking Caribbean region is amongst the top players in the region to elect a female as Prime Minister in Dominica (1980), the late Honourable Eugenia Charles. In recent years other female leaders have followed in her footsteps with Mrs. Portia Simpson in Jamaica, Mrs. Kamla Persad in Trinidad and Tobago and Ms. Mia Mottley in Barbados. Despite, strong women Prime Ministers, large percentiles of women at lower-level positions in public administration and increased advocacy for women’s equality in political, economic, and social spheres, women parliamentarians encounter institutional barriers and discrimination that limit their full participation and ability to ensure that women’s issues are addressed in policies. This paper examines women in parliamentary positions and their level of equality and participation in the Englishspeaking Caribbean. The thesis contributes to the scholarship on women’s barriers to political participation; the political culture, political parties, patriarchal and parliamentary structures, gatekeeper selection processes, and inefficient gender mainstreaming strategies. The larger implications reveal the substantial connection between women's political inclusion at the policy level and greater representation of women in society. This thesis produces comparative data on the profile of female member of parliaments, perspectives and experiences. It proposes a tool called VOICES for advancing meaningful descriptive and substantive representation. As it relates to substantive description, this tool contributes new ways of enhancing women MPs legislative power as it relates to gender-based violence policies.
