"It sounds like progress. An old-fashioned law that curtails the freedom of women to choose the time of day (or night) they wish to work is under review. The 1942 Women (Employment of) Act says a lot about both class and gender politics in Jamaica. The act prohibits night work for women. And it's not about prostitution. These days, sex work is no longer gender-specific. And it isn't necessarily done only at night.
The act defines 'night' as "a period of at least 11 consecutive hours, including the interval between 10 o'clock in the evening and 5 o'clock in the morning". Work is described as "every business or undertaking carried on for gain, except a business or undertaking in which only the members of the family of the owner or proprietor are employed". I wonder why women in family businesses are exempted."
There are several exceptions that I (and the writer) found particularly interesting. Though she listed all exceptions, I'll only list the two that stood out to me.
(f) carried on in a cinematograph or other theatre while such theatre is open to the public; or
(g) carried on in connection with a hotel or guest house, or with a bar, restaurant or club; or
Hmmmmmm, Are vulnerable women being protected? I wonder whose interest is being served by this???? Gosh! Could it be the men who created the law? (shaking my head, sighing....) Part of the author's conclusion is this: " Are these night jobs similar to the world's oldest profession? Making money all through the night clearly takes precedence over protecting supposedly vulnerable women. The law keeps its eye firmly fixed on the bottom line."
After reading this, I continued on my course of thinking in regards to the church (of course, not all of them) and its' intentional oppression of the women in their midst. OK, I'm not talking about your church, I am talking about church as I have come to know and experience it.
pa·tri·arch·y [pey-tree-ahr-kee]
1:
social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan
or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning
of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power
2: a society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of patriarchy
That being said or read, something is inherently and divinely wrong with the way the gospel is preached in the churches that I have experienced. The gospel is systematically preached to dis-empower women. With the exception of Mother Mary, Lydia, Timothy's mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, I don't think I've ever heard anything good about a woman, and when I did, it only by honorable mention. Ok, there's the Proverbs 31 woman who has be studied extensively but (in my humble opinion) so taken out of context that...(sighs) If we are charged to preach the whole counsel of God why don't men preach about Zelophehad's daughters of whom the Lord required that they inherit their father's property? How about Vashti as a model of resistance who refused to be objectified? Huldah the prophetess or Deborah the Judge who led Barak into battle? By the way, who made Mary Magdelene a harlot? Granted she had some demons, but God didn't name them and why should anyone else? Why doesn't anyone talk about "those women who labored with me [Paul} in the gospel..." I could go on but I won't.
This is problematic because if the church is to lead the world (and it should) then girls are getting these negative images and thinking they are ordained by God and therefore pleasing and godly. These girls grow into women who subconsciously believe that the only godly thing they can do is serve men and suffer and if they perish, they perish. (Of course, you know the rest! They are going to see the King which in translate these day into "heaven".)
Don't charge me falsely, I believe women should be great wives and great mothers and that family is a priority. However, how a family works out the roles that will best sustain them is up to them. I believe that if we are going to shift this wave of gender based violence and abuse then the church has to begin to tell the truth about who and what God made women to be. Chivalry is touted to be the ultimate form of respect that men have for women. I stand firmly to say, it is not. It is not respect. It is kindness. Who cares if you open a door for her or carry a bag for her if you suppress, oppress and ignore her? How can God be just and then not speak to issues/needs of 51% of the population? Either he's the same God that was yesterday or He's not and preacher, you can't have it both ways.
I'm stepping off my soap box as I share this one last thought: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." (Gen. 1:26) So God gave man (and woman) dominion over the earth, so why is man not happy unless he can dominate a woman? That's why the world is so unbalanced and out of order. Sounds to me, guys, that you're living under your privilege, not reaching your fullest potential. It's just one of those things that make me go hmmmmmm...... This is not a feminist rant, it just a plea for preaching the whole counsel of God. Either we believe all of the Bible or none of it. (Just sayin'...)
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