MIA MOTTLEY’S PENDING ASCENDANCY to higher office of governance will be more significant than symbolic importance.
Her vertical mobilization in our body politics would not be our first remarkable triumph, for our history is replete with successful women with such actualizations as that of Ermie Bourne, the first black woman to become an elected member of Parliament; Dame Nita Barrow, first Governor General of Barbados; Marion Williams, our first Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, to mention just a few.
These progressive thinkers ploughed through the obstacles on their way to glory and etched their mark on our history’s page.
Conversely there is still a social type in our society who is pathologically opposed to the equality of our womenfolk.
This chauvinistic element thrives on concocting poisonous rational to deny women the opportunity to move up.
In this modern educated society, our majority voice should express strong abhorrence to this prejudiced view, denouncing it with passion.
The appalling silence by fair and just-minded individuals on this subject is of great concern to many and in contrast to the vitriolic voices of the few who seek to keep women down.
Gender equality has allowed us to utilize the collective and creative talent of our society, and consequently we have made many qualitative and quantitative leaps in the second half of the 20th century.
The legacy of the greatness of those warriors who fought for women’s rights and liberation must be preserved.
Part of the commitment of the women’s movement must be to continue in this vein and never allow the mob to take us back to the Dark Ages.
TREVOR A PRESCOD
