Hartley Neita, Contributor
The following is the text of a Cabinet submission:
MEMBERS of the Cabinet are aware of the increasing awareness by the women of our country of their importance and their insistence that they should be given greater national recognition.
Women, as members know, have been quietly demanding that more of their gender should be chosen by the constituencies to represent them in Parliament. In addition there is a quiet lobby that one of these females should be elected as Presidents of our respective political parties and so be eligible to be appointed Prime Minister.
From one Member of our Honourable House, Iris Collins in 1944, there are now several such Members. There was also only one member in Local Government prior to 1944, namely Mary Morris Knibb, and a random few in the Upper House such as Edith Clarke and Beth Jacobs prior to Indepen-dence.
In the Public Service there are now several female Permanent Secretaries. The Financial Secretary is also a woman, as also many Heads of Government Departments and Statutory Boards. Many of our Judges are also women. Much progress has therefore been made.
My Ministry feels, however, that more has to be done, especially in view of the fact that the female vote is much more than the male.
We have therefore held consultations with organisations such as the Soroptomists, the Jamaica Federation of Women, our own Women's Movement and the Opposition's Women League, among others.
One recommendation which has come from these groups is that the Ministry of Education should be mandated to provide male students in our schools with training in typing and shorthand so that within a time frame of 10 years men will be eligible for appointment as Secretaries and stenographers to serve our increasing number of female Permanent Secretaries and other female heads of Government agencies.
These groups are also mobilising our rural women to abandon their traditional role as "market women" and to send their men folk to the markets as higglers. In this it would be helpful if the Ministry of Community Develop-ment begin to hold seminars and training workshops for our men to take up this role.
In this programme, Jamaica must not be seen as acting alone. It should therefore involve the international community, particular in relation to religion.
For centuries, mankind and womankind have created an image of the superior being as male. Jehovah and Allah, for example, are regarded as 'Father', and this Being is seen as 'He' and 'Him', and we humans as 'His' people.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should therefore be asked to invite the United Nations Organisation to begin dialogue with Heads of Governments to hold discussions with the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Spiritual Heads of the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and the Leaders of other Religions to recognise their respective 'Hims' as Mothers.
This will mean that prayers like the Lord's Prayer will in future begin 'Our Mother', and hymns such as 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' be changed to 'Mother', and all references in the Bible which speak of 'He' will become "She".
The Cabinet merely took note of the Submission and referred it to a sub-Committee.
