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Women’s Suffrage in Cayman – Role of the Women’s Fellowship

Someone recently came across in the Cayman Islands National Archive the document of which the attached [open full article to access attachment] is page one. Having recognised a number of signatories as women still active in the John Gray Memorial United Church, sent it with the caption “Don’t Mess with the West Bay Church Ladies!” That is very applicable! Women in the Church have long been ‘a power to reckon with’! As those already familar with this aspect of history know, it is equally true that the Women’s Fellowship, or the Women’s Guild, as it was then known, played a key role in getting the Legislature of 1957 to finally recognise that justice demanded women have the equal right to vote (there had been an earlier petition on this, as documented in the history books of Cayman, and then too the Guild members were active). But in 1957, because the Presbyterian Church (as the United Church then was) and its Women’s Guild  were one of the few bodies (perhaps the only other besides the Civil Service) with members across the whole of Grand Cayman, its women played a key role in getting women in all Districts of the Island to sign the petitions.  This is certainly an accomplishment that we need to continue to be extremely grateful for to the women of the Church as a cohesive group passionate for justice at that time, and hopefully it will help to demonstrate the key ways in which a strong women’s ministry in the Church could continue to have a profound effect on Country, as well as for the Church and Christ. 

Posted by: Administrator Monday Apr 22, 2013 08:06
Categories: Cayman Islands, John Gray | Tags: Women, Women's Suffrage