ABSTRACT
THE UWI Guild of Students is the recognized student governance structure. Since its establishment in 1962, there have been four female guild presidents of the 57 presidents that have served. These female Guild presidents are Terri-Ann Joseph (1983-1984), Katijha Khan (2000-2001), Fallon Lutchmansingh (2005-2006) and Natasha Grimes (2007-2008). At the end of each academic year, there is a process for the election of UWI Guild of student councilors. There are 24 councilors who serve as student representatives, who represent issues such as Hall of Residents, Faculty, National and International Affairs as well as the executive responsible for the decision making of students. Students who seek interest in serving executive positions are justified through spearheading professional election campaigns where they engage the public and present their manifestos for leadership.
Elsa Leo Rhynie (2003, 285-287) examined the gender dynamics in student leadership, the experience of female leaders and power relations in the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. Throughout the results of her study, it was indicated that the practices and relations of culture and gender cannot be changed or undone overtime, providing apprehension for ‘acceptance of the culture’ and male norms. Leo Rhynie explains the reason for the lack of involvement as she speaks about women’s experiences in campaigning, gender biases, and traditions of patriarchy linking all points in her attempt to determine reasoning for the large difference in political gender statistics in the Guild. challenges encountered by women in student leadership, particularly on the Guild Council.
Research has shown that the political gender gap, usually caused by the lower levels of resources, education and occupational prestige available to women is an important issue. This blog examines the shared relationship shared between geography and power with the gender gap in political leadership. This will aid in achieving suitable reasoning for the issue, whilst evaluating the ideologies of gender stereotypes centred around women and women’s involvement in leadership. These were confirmed through the use of primary qualitative data collection methods such as an interview with a former guild president, also a former stakeholder of the Guild of Students.
Gender Stereotypes
Mary Clisbee (2005) puts forward that “Female leadership style can be described as collaborative and caring and less hierarchical than their male counterparts with softer traits while (Hine, 2011) brings a light to, “Student leadership and development as dynamic allowing for implications for the future and the end of the considerable gap of literature associated with this genre”. Indeed, there are insufficient works of literature on leadership involving women and students, and it is these gaps that associate with national politics creating the same outcomes, which will be explored. As of 2017/2018, the University has reported that there were more females than male students, in fact, 11,551 out of a resounding 18,303 total. While women form a demographic majority, in terms of gender, the prevalence of gender stereotypes not only affects the electoral chances of female candidates, but it also makes leadership less desirable. There is still male-dominated student leadership in the midst of a female majority undergraduate enrollment at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. Females in the presence of the Guild council did not traditionally hold powerful decision-making positions, such Faculty Representatives. In fact, for women to run, there must be some sort of political and societal coalitions, and familiarity with names and faces in order for clean campaigns, otherwise there is the usual gender stereotypes and campaign discrimination. Elsa Leo Rhynie (2003), argued that the acceptance culture and gender norms are a driving force behind engendered politics. Driving forces behind student leadership involve politics on micro scales such as the UWI STA Guild of students, and the gender and power implications such as gaps arise from the issues that have emerged from within the Guild.
Political Party Involvement in Student Politics
‘Maleness’ in politics match longstanding popular expectations for leadership, while feminine gender stereotypes contradict them, impeding on women’s electoral ability. A gender stereotype can be described as a cultural and social construction of men and women in that they each have subservient roles in society. A typical stereotype in this context is that males are better holders of power, with their strength and sternness creating an advantage over their female counterparts. It coincides with the notion that “power is not for women to possess”. Interestingly, Cockburn (1991) argues for male dominance and patriarchal views stating that male power is not occasional, incidental or accidental but is systematic and adaptive. Their intimidation has the effect of getting women to withdraw from the potential repercussions, as aggravation and harassment cannot be compensated by a hierarchical post. We interviewed, Fallon Lutchmansingh who was the former and second female Guild President between the period of (2005-2006), she is now is a Trinidadian born research coordinator in the field of biochemistry. Upon being asked her thoughts on why some males or females would choose to campaign for certain positions she exclaimed that “It has to do with the perception of power, and who can hold power as females are told not to run”. Her reflection shows that these stereotypes and ideologies are still a part of present-day societal life. As it relates to political geography, power and politics are directly linked to space and place as stated by (Jones et al, 2004). Politics and moreover political geography are the processes involved exercising and resisting power, these can occur over particular spaces and structures such as the University of the West Indies and the Guild, where presidents exert the power possessed by their position over the campus population through policy.
The involvement of party politics in the Guild of Students at UWI STA is an investment in producing young male politicians for national and international levels. Party Politics is thus a substantial driving force of engenderment within the Guild. A study done by Elayah (2015, 103) explains that it is the role of political parties to politicize students and that they focus their attention on attracting students to participate in politics and often, persons running in the Guild engage in some sort of political activity after university life. Since most Guild candidates enter the political arena after university life, political parties and politicians see this as an opportunity to groom the upcoming politician generation. This coincides with a point put forward by Lutchmansingh (2019), “the Guild has become a microcosm of Trinidad and Tobago politics”. Additionally, one of her experiences can attribute to this as she explains, “during the campaigning process, there was a smear campaign against me, where an aspect of my personal life was brought into the public eye. A sitting member of Parliament at the time had commissioned the smear campaign.”. This showcases the type of discrimination that takes places against female candidates on regular bases and the behaviour that the leaders of the nation at that time had toward women. Furthermore, it illustrates how politics at a national level is changing boundaries and entering boundaries that are not there. Taking this thought into consideration, political geography encompasses boundaries and territories, thus describing relationships between geography and politics. These are within the contexts of parties and academics as elections and party politics entail structuralism and spatial aspects of geography, they are also illustrated in contemporary life and the geographies of political parties, a context widely known as electoral geographies (Johnston & Pattie, 2003).
Lack of Participation
This study investigated women’s involvement in student politics, the factors that encourage and discourage them from participating and their experiences within the Guild of the UWI St Augustine Campus. In terms of concerns of a feminist nature on campus and society at large, this study can aid in advocating for those concerns as it highlights the struggles faced by women in the student political arena. It can also aid in any future studies being done in the field of Political Geography with regards to power, space, place and the associated boundaries.
There is lack of participation from women in the Guild, due to the cognisance of the challenges and experiences of former candidates. According to Norris (2018) a toxic culture, emphasizes the misogynistic views that exclude women from politics, drawing on the fact that risk of harassment acts as a deterrent from women involvement into politics, as verbal abuse is a major limiting factor to participation. Without understood recognition and respect for campaigning females, there are usually instances of catcalling, discrimination and attacks on the personal lives of women as male chauvinists use these as the woman’s weakness. In the instances of both national politics and student politics, with regards to Lutchmansingh’s experience, highlighting personal issues is used as a tactic against one’s opponent. Mattes and Redlawsk in their book mention that personal attacks made offer voters information on the records of politicians allowing them to make more informed decisions. This provides a rationale for why women are less likely to run for power positions, they do not want their private matters to be made public, whereas men simply do not care. Lutchmansingh also explained that by entering the arena you have to be prepared for the backlash of politics, saying “women tend to avoid situations where they know the outcomes may be ‘messy’.” These divisions, challenges and experiences show the spatial divisions between men and women, highlighting the differences between their behaviour and experiences within certain spaces and boundaries. Furthermore, examining the challenges of women in politics challenges the process and conceptualization of political geography with the involvement of feminist political geography, (Staeheli, 2004). This entails approaches that are structuralist recognizing the plurality amongst women and the ways in which gender divisions are encouraged in society.
REFERENCES
Barriteu, Eudine, and Rafael Ramirez. Confronting Power Theorizing Gender Interdisciplinary Perspectives in the Caribbean. University of the West Indies Press, 2004
Mattes, Kyle, and David P. Redlawsk. 2014. The Positive Case for Negative Campaigning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Elayah, Ahmed Jameel. 2015. “The Impact of Political Parties and Regional Discrimination on the Quality of Education in Yemeni Universities.” Frontiers of Language and Teaching 6 : 102-103. Accessed
Jones, M., R. Jones, M. Woods, M.J. Whitehead, D.P. Dixon and M.G. Hannah. 2004. An Introduction to Political Geography: Space, Place and Politics. New York: Routledge.
Staeheli, Lynn A., Eleonore Kofman and Linda J. Peake. 2004. Mapping Women, Making Politics; Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography. UK: Routledge.
Mary Clisbee “Gender Differences in Leadership Style: A Literature Analysis.” Published 2005. Accessed April 9th,2019
Gregory Hine “Exploring the development of student leadership potential within a Catholic school: a qualitative case study.” Published 2011. Accessed April 9th, 2019
This blog is in partial fulfillment of the GEOG2017: Political Geography and Geopolitics course 2018/2019 lectured by Amilcar Sanatan.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENGENDERING STUDENT LEADERSHIP AT THE UWI GUILD OF STUDENTS 