Dear Editor,
I refer to Ms Cecelia McAlmont’s article captioned “The struggle for women’s suffrage” (SN 2/11/06) and her conclusion: “The struggle for women’s suffrage had been long and sometimes brutal, and the way in which Guyanese women have used that hard won right will be the subject of another article.”
Both the caption Ms McAlmont uses for her article as well as her conclusion are incorrect if she were referring to Guyanese women. There had been no struggle for women’s franchise by Guyanese women qua women, absolutely none. And when universal adult suffrage was granted by the British, the men had to pressure women to register.
Ms McAlmont could have a new research topic if she could enquire whether Guyanese women, since they were not as enthusiastic about the franchise as men, and came out to vote largely by the urgings of husbands, brothers and other male relatives, were less inclined to the racial politics which is only now fading away. Since Ms McA is looking for the heroic women, wouldn’t she then be turning the Guyanese women into the new heroines who had progressed away from racial politics and were quiet pioneers?
Yours faithfully,
F. Mason
