The Tribune

BAHAMIAN women were challenged to put their passion to work in politics and public service.

“Whatever your passion is, I want you to recognise that your passion is controlled, legislated, supported, or ignored, by government,” former Bermuda Premier Dame Jennifer Smith told a group of Bahamian women attending a women’s forum at the College of the Bahamas.

“This means that if there is something you care about, you must learn to lobby your Members of Parliament and Senators. You must attend public meetings and speak out. You must educate those around you so that your passion is shared.

“I believe that passion will lead you to get involved in public service. And I believe that if you do this, our next generation of women decision-makers will come forward.”

Addressing female students and faculty of the College of the Bahamas and other women from a cross-section of careers at the Harry C Moore Library, Dame Jennifer said the Bahamas is a country of outstanding women in all areas of endeavour but that statement is not reflected in the number of women running for political office or offering themselves for public service.

“The challenge is to determine why this is so,” Dame Jennifer said. “I have learnt that whether we are interested participants or not, politics affects all of our lives.”

Dame Jennifer, who took 17 years and six elections to become the representative for the St George’s North seat for the Progressive Labour Party, said women have long been “agents of change.”

“All we have to do is look back at the Suffrage Movement; at the Christian Temperance Movement and at the Feminist Movement. Women are the backbone of every community organisation whether they are churches, unions, charitable groups and political organisations. The question is ‘How do we move forward?”

Dame Jennifer said Bahamian women need only to look within their own country to find examples to follow.