From left, Simms, Hope and Dunn.

Lovelette Brooks, News Editor

The revelation that some 33 per cent of Jamaican men have been named 'father' to children they have not sired has brought into sharp focus some moral and socioeconomic issues affecting women in Jamaica.

"The truth is that the phenomenon is complex, as well as human," says gender consultant, Dr. Glenda Simms, in dismissing the stereotypes of the faithless wife with regular lovers, as well as the bored housewife.

"Too many men in Jamaica still believe in the 'nuff gal' syndrome," Simms claims. "They have this need to go outside and conquer. It's not enough to have a woman at home, they must also have their friend's wives. So, a web of relationships is created, and paternity must be 'hidden' if pregnancy occurs."

Absent fathers

In many cases, she says, the absent father is a problem. Men often stay away from home, some albeit for work, but others are out having a good time. The woman will then look for companionship on the outside, Simms posits.

In other cases, she says, a woman may marry a man she really did not want to marry, for economic reasons. So then she has a lover on the side. If she gets pregnant, she is going to attribute fatherhood to her husband. When women cheat on their husbands, they very rarely take precautions against pregnancy, says Simms.

"A woman having an extra-marital affair is the exception to the rule. She might not be monogamous by nature, but is forced to be because society dictates this. So, having another man's child while in a committed relationship is a social taboo," states Simms.

Research out of Australia, where DNA paternity tests have been widely used since the 1980s, supports Simms' views. The research found that most women in "paternity cases" were involved in sexual relationships that "overlapped" or happened "in quick succes-sion," as well as "one-off" encounters with friends, acquaintance and old flames that usually did not involve either infidelity or deception because the women were either unattached or only "minimally attached" to a dying, old or embryonic relationship at the time.

Unplanned sex

One woman, for example, had unplanned sex with a long-time friend - her first encounter after the death of her husband a year earlier. Several days later, she met a new man, who became her regular partner. Logically, he had to be the 'father' of her child.

Equally crucial to the paternity fraud debate is truth in relationships and the rights of the child in terms of his/her lineage and medical history.

"A child's identity and heritage, parentage and the responsibilities that go with that, as well as a person's blood line, health issues and medical history, are very important," cautions Simms.

However, Dr. Donna Hope, culture researcher, cites many reasons why women, over the years, have had well-guarded paternity secrets. She suggests that a combination of factors, including resource constraints, class and status, are behind many of these fraud cases.

"Women in Jamaica still see their children as their 'bank account' and 'old-age pension'," states Hope. "Therefore, they will have two or three lovers and when they become pregnant, the named father will be the one who is most financially stable. Women have been choosing who they want to 'father' their children for a long time."

She adds: "Genetics also play a big part. Believe it or not, some women still want bright-skin, straight-hair children, so a Caucasian lover would make an ideal 'father'. The family name is also perceived as taking the child very far. If the father don't care for the child, his family will, they reason. All of this is playing on the territorial nature of families in Jamaica and the adherence to class and status," Hope says.

Creates mistrust

What impact does this have on family life and social relations? According to Hope, this creates mistrust; men are now finding out that women are a great deal more cunning and calculating.

"More and more, men are successfully challenging their paternity in divorce and child- support cases, revealing a huge change in the relationship between men and women," she discloses. "Men who are being divorced increasingly call into question the paternity of children conceived during the marriage," she adds.

Dr. Leith Dunn, head of the Gender Studies Department at the University of the West Indies, argues that women have been forced into multiple partnership arrangements due to economic reasons, hence the "unfortunately" high rate of paternal exclusion in Jamaica.

Says Dunn: "The underlying assumption is that men need higher salaries because they are expected to be the main providers for their families. Women tend to be paid lower wages for work of equal value because the assumption is that their income is supplementary to that of the main (male) breadwinner. In reality, many women have main responsibility for their families (financial and social responsibility). This disparity forces many women to have multiple partners."

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