“Portia Simpson-Miller, 51, who will be sworn in next week as the first woman Prime Minister of Jamaica, has prompted a rare dose of political unity with her pledge to succeed where decades of male leadership have failed in tackling the country’s notoriously high crime rate, joblessness and poverty.”

common ground reached by rival gangs where gunfire used to be commonplace between supporters of the new Prime Minister’s party, the PNP, on one side of the road, and backers of the Jamaican Labour Party, JLP, on the opposite side:

“While flare-ups here and in other ghetto communities continue, prompted by turf wars and gang disputes, the factions have at least found common ground in Mrs Simpson-Miller.

“The PNP like her, the JLP like her. On this we agree,” Michael Traill, a community leader in the JLP stronghold, said. “She gives us promises — schools, development, help for the children. She came from a poor background like ours.”

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the rising of women in Jamaica and features an inspiring photo of Simpson-Miller among supporters.

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