The Rights of Women

1957: The Rights of Women to be on Equal Terms with Men in Public and Political Life in the Cayman Islands.

In 1957, 358 women from throughout the Cayman Islands lobbied for the rights of women to vote and stand in public elections.  Identical petitions from seven different districts, which called for women to be given the fundamental right to take part in deciding who will form the government of the Cayman Islands, were presented to the Legislative Assembly.  Many of the women who signed these petitions also demonstrated vociferously against their exclusion through to the election that took place in the following year.  They were ultimately rewarded when the Sex Discrimination (Removal) Law was enacted on the 8th December 1958.

The rights of women to vote, to be eligible for election to all public bodies, and to be on equal terms with men in public and political life is now enshrined in Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted in 1979; some 22 years after the women of the Cayman Islands asserted the right that is now found in Article 7 of this United Nations Convention.  The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, however, is the only one of the core international human rights treaties that has not been extended to the Cayman Islands.  As such, the pioneering work of women, including Mary Evelyn Wood, the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly, whose picture is featured in this campaign, remains unfinished.  Today, public bodies like the Women’s Resource Centre and private organisations such as the Business and Professional Women’s Club; are active in the field of women’s rights in the Cayman Islands, advocating for an end to domestic violence and sexual harassment.  Containing a general commitment to the equality of women in all walks of life, including in public and political life, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is therefore distinctly relevant to the Cayman Islands.