Women in the House of Representatives of Jamaica

Jamaica is the first English-speaking country in the Caribbean to achieve universal adult suffrage and grant women the right to be elected to Parliament.

This is a new all-time high at 29% and is the first time that female representation in the House of Representatives stands at more than a quarter of the total membership.

The new system extended voting rights to adults irrespective of their race, sex, or social class.

[3] On December 12 of the same year, Jamaica became only the third state in the British Empire to conduct elections on the basis of universal adult suffrage, preceded only by New Zealand (1893) and the United Kingdom (1918).

After by-elections in 2017 and 2019, with the election of Angela Brown-Burke and Ann-Marie Vaz, respectively, the number of women in the House of Representatives rose to 13, thus exceeding 20% for the first time.