National

Glenys Hanna-Martin: Women Are Different; We’re Not Lesser, We’re Just Different

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – We’ve had a storied history of Bahamian female leadership in The Bahamas.

Published

3 weeks ago

October 28, 2024

Sasha Lightbourne

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – We’ve had a storied history of Bahamian female leadership in The Bahamas.

The likes of Dame Doris Johnson, Mary Ingraham, Mabel Walker, Dame Janet Bostwick, Dame Ivy Dumont, Dame Cynthia Pratt are among the more notable names who’ve helped to advance the status of women in politics – in many cases being the first to hold various offices.

But the one thing that has eclipsed The Bahamas is a female prime minister.

Even throughout the region, The Bahamas has been surpassed in that area.

Among country firsts: Jamaica’s Portia Simpson Miller who served as prime minister twice from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2017 and Mia Mottley currently serving as Barbados’ prime minister, a post she has held since 2018.

So why haven’t we seen the same success?

Long serving Parliamentarian and Cabinet Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin believes the structure of our political parties is at the core of the problem.

Back in 2017, Hanna-Martin herself ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Progressive Liberal Party.

I asked her outright whether she would try again.

While Hanna-Martin believes our storied history of female leadership in The Bahamas is great, it’s far from sufficient but she remains hopeful.

While some may see the U.S. Elections as a litmus test for what could eventually happen here, Hanna-Martin offers this somewhat different view.

“The question is what is what’s next? I don’t know if you have to see with the American people decide to do all the time but I think that I think that everybody’s around the world is watching to see what happens,” she said.

“For us in The Bahamas, I believe we are not quite the same society even though we have similar issues that they have in United States, but I think that in The Bahamas any progress made for women, women will celebrate positively, we will celebrate… now whether that translates to anything on our end, it is yet to be seen.”