"It's woman time now" in Jamaica (first female prime minister)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-03-19-jamaica_x.htm

By Danna Harman, USA TODAY

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Women have long made up close to 50% of the labor force in this Caribbean island nation, the bureau says, and are moving into many senior- and middle-management positions. Women now head the Manufacturers Association, the Employers Federation and the American Chamber of Commerce. But there are still few women in the highest positions, particularly in politics.

That, too, appears to be changing, and the biggest change yet will take place March 30 when Portia Simpson-Miller, 60, becomes Jamaica's first female prime minister.

"The Jamaican matriarch is the center of our society," says Mercedes Deane, registrar of the University of Technology, or UTech. "Women here have long been leaders in their homes, churches and communities — and now they are becoming the engineers, computer programmers, architects and, yes, prime ministers of our future. It is the natural next step."

Simpson-Miller became prime minister-designate when she narrowly defeated National Security Minister Peter Phillips in her dominant People's National Party elections last month. The reggae tunes The Strength of a Woman, and Thank You Momma opened nearly all of Simpson-Miller's rallies. The title of another song, It's Woman Time Now, became her unofficial campaign theme.

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Good to see. Now, if we could only follow the lead of supposedly "weaker" nations.