Believe in something bigger than yourself

Why did they continue this public struggle at the risk of being branded troublemakers and being shunned by employers who didn’t at that time buy into the idea of women workers getting time-off to do a small thing like a giving birth. Why were some of these same women – the founders of the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre WROC and former members of the Committee of Women Working for Progress – so interested in developing and empowering their fellow sisters? The answer is pretty simple: they believed in something bigger than themselves and they had the guts to act on that belief. And recently about a dozen of these stalwart women, some still active in community development, met to reflect on their colourful past and the way forward.

Back in the 1970s things were extraordinarily tough. The IMF had just come into being and there were price controls on many basic items. “A lot of what we did in the 1970s was take supermarkets to court for marrying goods , hoarding goods and jacking up prices so things were hard for people during this time…and we won those cases,” explains Linnette Vassell noted gender specialist and co-founder of WROC. However besides the severity of conditions in the country at the time, there was also a sense of nationalism and being a ‘sister’s keeper.’ Paulette Chevannes, who was then active in the National Union of Democratic Teachers and among the WROC Board members remembers that “one of the things that made it so fervent and why we wanted to work for better conditions was the state of the country, not only were people suffering but we felt that there was a movement in the country that felt it was our responsibility to make a difference…it was a period when we felt proud to be Jamaicans, nationalism was very strong, the youth movement was strong. The women’s movement came out of that period of strength.”

Furthermore as her colleague Ingrid Monroe points out “the whole world was focusing on women. After all women are 50% of the world and the world suffers when the majority of the population suffers.” The only male in the conversation and a foundation Board member Wendel Wilkins adds that “there was fervor of consciousness of working together to forward the national movement.” He describes the 70s as “the glory days – women were promoted as persons of substance and value and equality – equal but different,” he emphasized.

Certainly one of the proudest moments for the women’s movement at the time was the passage of the maternity leave act in 1979. All of WROC’s founders agree that the act, which for the first time allowed Jamaican women to get paid time-off to have their babies and return to their jobs, is the most monumental achievement for each of them personally.  Ingrid Monroe is keen to point out however that this success “wasn’t presented to us on a platter, it was a law that the women of Jamaica fought for. The business classes fought it saying they’re not paying for us to ‘breed up’ the place.” Continuing, she stresses that for two years 1978-1979 “we out there every Saturday demonstrating for women’s right and maternity leave; and we struggled in partnership with the PNP Women’s Movement led then by Beverley Manley, the YWCA, church women’s organizations and of course women on the streets.” And even though the founders were thrilled about finally reaping the reward of their hard labour, they paid a price in their personal lives such as being overlooked for promotions, loosing their green cards and having at the same time to wrestle with the demands and struggles in their families.

Nevertheless, after all the struggles and successes concerning women’s rights it was only natural to take their desire to empower and help women to the next step by creating a structured organization that could help women in specific ways; hence the birth of the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre WROC in 1983. “We thought that our work needed to become more practical to help women to empower themselves and their families in face of the particularly harsh IMF conditions, that is what motivated us,” shares Dacia Brown Davis, another WROC founder. Continuing her colleague Lucy Brown explains that “we were concerned about doing work for women.  We were encountering the problems that women were having and it was out of that need to meet the day-to-day needs of women that WROC evolved.” The goal of the organization was and continues to be advancing the rights of women and their families. This includes health and wellness support, community capacity building, creating sustainable livelihoods, and advocating for strengthening women’s leadership in the country among other areas.
Today however the founders lament that people in society seem to be more concerned about meeting their individual needs more than the needs of the country. While this is understandable, Eulalee Jarrett remembers that “at that time we weren’t thinking only of our own personal gain but of organizing women so that we can be empowered in helping their family and community.” In order to rebuild a sense of community involvement in Jamaica, the founders believe that engendering a spirit of volunteerism among the youth is part of the way forward. Heather Bryan opines that “volunteerism is one way of generating a spirit of community development and nationalism.” The group of women also pointed to the importance of citizens’ associations as an important way of building community capacity and community spirit.

The Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre WROC celebrates it 27th anniversary in 2010 and the meeting among its co-founders was an important part of the commemorative activities. Other co-founders present included Dorit Bent among the first board members and Cynthia Humes who Linnette reminded, helped to write the first project proposal to seek funds to establish the organization. For more information please send your emails to communications@wrocjamaica.org.