Women have power to change governments

Never underestimate the power of a woman’s vote as women have the power to determine which political party ends up forming the next Government as they have done in past elections.

This is coming from Political Analyst and Director of the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), Peter Wickham, who at the time was delivering the National Organisation of Women (NOW) lecture at Solidarity House on Monday night.

“Since 1981, we have had in excess of 12 000 women over men registered in Barbados… Since 1971, we have had in excess of 13 000 women over men participating in elections and what that has meant that the voter turnout among men is 60 per cent and the voter turnout among women is 73 per cent. That is on average since 1981.”

The Director of CADRES stated that these numbers are imperative as they are an indication that not only were more women registered to vote, but the margin in which the political party got elected over their rivals was a similar amount to that of the excess of females voting over men.

“I think that that is significant because what that basically means is that there are more women registered and the women are more active on voter base. This is an observation that I made in 2001 and I am happy to say that today it is still a significant point. What I was able to dig down and find out though, which I didn’t observe in 2001, is that there have been a couple of elections in which the margin of victory was actually significant because the margin of victory was similar to the excess of females over men voting.”

He stated that you could observe this when you look at those years when the party returned to govern the country.

“So in 1991, which was the year in which the Government was not changed, 2008 and 2013, you had a situation where the excess of females voting over the men was in some instances, double. Six thousand was the victory margin and 11 000 women over men that were voting.

“So basically, the point here when we look at all of this data and statistics is that women had the power and still have the power to change governments, and in many instances, some of them do,” said the Political Analyst. (PJT)