By Malcolm Strachan

A SERIES of separate stories last week showed how seriously – or rather the lack of seriousness with which the current administration takes women.

Equal rights campaigner Prodesta Moore spoke up in a letter in which she called women to be not just given a chance of representation in Parliament, but a fair chance.

Not token measures, but equal representation, with at least 40-50 percent of women candidates, and in constituencies where victory is possible.

She said it is “not enough to say ‘we want more women in politics’. The real test is in how the parties position those women. Until women are given winnable seats and full backing, the promise of gender equality in Bahamian politics will remain an empty one”.

Empty promises might be a fair description of this administration’s approach to women – with a number of issues affecting women in particular left unresolved or with a lack of will to bring about change.

It was not just Prodesta Moore speaking up. She might not have intended her own administration as a target – but the current Speaker of the House, Patricia Deveaux, also spoke on the issues facing women in politics.

She said: “There will always be barriers as women, because males are always going to give us a very tough time.”

She was speaking alongside Senate President Lashell Adderley at an event to mark this week’s Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference. The women’s conference will run alongside the regional meeting – and will put various issues affecting women in the spotlight, so you can expect to hear more on women’s rights and the wrongs visited upon them in the days ahead.

The Senate president spoke of hopes for new women candidates to come forward, saying: “The hope of women all over the world as we see more women take political office is that that growth will be encouraged and continued.”

The reality is that women are seriously underrepresented in this Parliament. There are just seven women out of 39 MPs in total – and yet, that ratio is still a record number of women in Parliament, the previous record being five.

Whether that ratio has anything to do with it or not, this administration has also underwhelmed when it comes to tackling issues affecting women.

Another example appeared last week – with the revelation that this country still cannot carry out DNA testing in-country for rape kits.

As a result, rape victims are left waiting for months for the testing to be carried out at laboratories abroad. This in turn has a knock-on effect for court cases for such crimes.

Women are made to wait for justice after being sexually violated because we cannot prioritise the spending.

Bahamas Crisis Centre director Dr Sandra-Dean Patterson was blunt in her assessment, saying: “We have to prioritise it. The government has many, many needs and very many demands, and everything changes every year. But one thing that is not changing is the incident of sexual violence.”

Why has the government not done anything about such a lab? According to Dr Dean-Patterson, it would be “extremely costly”.

Lots of things in government are extremely costly. Being in government sees you presented with a list of price tags every day. The government chooses to spend on things that are costly all the time. Witness the semi-regular talk for example of a new Parliament building. That will not be cheap. Is that worth paying for ahead of something that will speed up justice for victims of rape?

As Dr Dean-Patterson says: “We cannot put a price tag on it. We cannot. We need to do all that we can to ensure that victims can feel supported and can feel that they can get justice.”

One of the other areas in which DNA testing may be needed is another area in which women lack equality – citizenship.

Back in February last year, the government said it had finalised its rules for genetic testing for people affected by the 2023 Privy Council ruling on citizenship – which affirmed that those born out of wedlock to Bahamian men are Bahamians at birth regardless of their mother’s nationality.

However, the government said that DNA samples would be part of the process to ensure that these really were the children of Bahamian men and it was not just a case of them saying it was their child.

Again, that requires DNA tests to be completed – and would see those tests sent out of country rather than being able to be dealt with here.

We should of course note that sending these tests to a lab elsewhere also has a cost – so it is not as if we are not spending money on this testing already.

But while the government has proceeded – albeit slowly – with finalising rules on citizenship where it affects men, it appears to have completely shelved any action with regards to inequality when it comes to citizenship being passed on by women.

Children born to a Bahamian woman and a foreign man are not automatically granted Bahamian citizenship. This is the exact situation the government is finalising protocols for in the case of Bahamian men – but no sign of dealing with it for women.

Bahamian women also lack the same rights as men in securing citizenship for a foreign spouse.

In this article, we have not even discussed the issue of the lack of legislation over marital rape – despite this administration’s manifesto pledge to uphold pledges with regard to equality, or dealt with the endless delays over even giving straight answers over domestic violence shelters, let alone setting them up.

If all of this shows a lack of urgency to treat women with respect and equality, then into the mix comes the loud mouth of Leslie Miller.

When Miller was in Parliament, his misogynistic language saw him “joking” about hitting women – even as he assured Parliament that he was not joking. Nothing was done at the time to really show the government took such behaviour seriously.

Last week, Miller patronisingly called for the PLP not to run in the Killarney constituency. In his comments, he derided the FNM candidate chosen for the seat, Senator Michela Barnett-Ellis, calling her a “little young girl” and criticising “the audacity of her to go there and talk about she want to run the place”.

Mrs Barnett-Ellis is 43, and has two decades of legal experience – and there is no place for the kind of language Miller has, and continues, to come out with.

What has been the consequence for Miller and his repeated ill treatment of women? In this year’s Independence honours, he was given the title of Companion of the Order of The Bahamas.

This administration not only fails to act to benefit women – it actively rewards those who belittle them.

Perhaps it is little wonder there are so few women at the top end of a political process that continues to fail to take them seriously.