NASSAU, The Bahamas – Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Senator Allyson Maynard-Gibson has called on men, as they did 50 years ago, to support the fight to end discrimination against women.
She made the call as she seconded a Resolution to amend the Constitution of The Bahamas to remove all forms of discrimination against women, during an historic Special Joint Sitting of the Senate and the House of Assembly on the occasion of the Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement on Monday, November 26, 2012.
She said any vestige of discrimination against women is destructive and profoundly affects men and the entire Bahamian society.
“Now is the time for Bahamian men (as they did during the Suffragette Movement) to join their mothers, wives and daughters in the fight to eradicate discrimination from our Constitution so as to fully and irrevocably engage and utilise the indomitable spirit of Bahamian womanhood in nation building,” the attorney general said.
She said it is no coincidence that the 50th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage is observed during the 40th Anniversary of Independence of the country.
In acknowledging the forerunners of the movement namely Mary Ingraham, Eugenia Lockhart, Georgiana K. Symonette, Mabel Walker, Dame Albertha Isaacs, Dame Doris Johnson and the thousands of men and women who supported the movement, she said they heeded “God’s call” to promote a common cause for the modern Bahamas.
“We must act with alacrity to remove all forms of discrimination against women form our Constitution. We must release the shackles of second class citizenship from Bahamian women,” she said.
The attorney general noted that stable, meaningful and fruitful national development mandate that the spouse of a Bahamian woman has the same right to citizenship as the spouse of a Bahamian man and that all Bahamian women have the same right to citizenship to Bahamian citizenship as the children of all Bahamian men.
“As we increase our quest for excellence in national and international development, now is the time to measure all of our efforts by this yardstick,” she said.
It is a unique formula that promotes equal pay for equal work, elimination of poverty, equity in access to health care, a safety net for children and disadvantaged citizens, more women in parliament, amongst other things.
By Lindsay Thompson
Bahamas Information Services
Caption: Senator Allyson Maynard-Gibson addressing the historic Special Joint Sitting of the Senate and the House of Assembly on the occasion of the Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement on Monday, November 26, 2012. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)
