its peak and did not know that it was happening at the time,” says Bethel, “Later, I realized that I was nourished by these women who were actively involved in the movement…I wanted to lift up and highlight their story.” Even though Bahamian suffragettes adopted various components utilized during the “Votes for Women” campaign in the U.S., the two countries suffrage movements cannot be directly compared because the historical and environmental contexts of each created different ssued for women in the Bahamas, 1962. possibilities. However, it is useful to consider how suffrage movements outside the U.S. engage or disengage with the history of women’s suffrage in this country. Forty-two years after the U.S. women’s suffrage movement, which included strategic efforts to reinforce racial inequalities, the Bahamian women’s suffrage movement sought to resist racial discrimination; and the political and economic inequities that pervaded Bahamian society. Bethel highlights that, “the local Bahamian white women were not in the forefront of the movement [because] there was a tendency [for them] to remain faithful to the white minority government.” However, some white Bahamian women supported the movement in covert ways, says Bethel. The white women who did overtly support the movement were non-Bahamian women, from England and Canada, who were married to the leaders of the Progressive Liberal Party. The film explains that these outspoken supporters
were invested in the Bahamian women’s suffrage movement because of their own experience with sexist political disenfranchisement while traveling to the Bahamas—a reality that was no longer present in Canada or England. Furthermore, “There was class diversity in the [Bahamian] suffrage movement. Black women from the working class and middle class supported the movement,” explains Bethel. “This cross-class collaboration,” Bethel underscores, “facilitated the cause.” After the film screening on campus, the filmmaker answered questions from the audience about the current state of women’s politics in the Bahamas—but, then she’d turn those questions back toward the audience and ask about the United Status. It felt like Bethel was encouraging audience members to question the state of their own government. One of her questions directly asked audience members what they were doing to pressure the U.S. government to ratify the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The audience, somewhat taken aback by the question, fell silent for some time. This film screening made me think a lot about my role and potential to confront and disrupt the direction of U.S. politics and to help the advancement of women of color internationally. I know now, what I was never exposed to as a young woman. And, although my identification as a woman of color barred me from internalizing the effects of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States, my perspective as an American citizen has additionally kept me from considering how women outside the U.S. have fought for enfranchisement. What I learned from Marion Bethel and her film, is that when history does not involve my story, I can feel empowered to find ways to challenge and change that.
To learn more about Womanish Ways, visit the documentary website: www.womensuffragebahamas.com
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