Ousted Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield has suggested Bermuda could be moving backward because of the underrepresentation of women in Cabinet.

Deputy Premier Paula Cox and Attorney General Kim Wilson are now the only female members of Premier Ewart Brown's team — alongside eight men.

When Ms Butterfield was appointed as Minister without portfolio under Dame Jennifer Smith in 2002, she was one of five women in Cabinet.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette, Ms Butterfield said females bring many qualities to the table and that men as well as women believe in a fair representation of the sexes.

She said: "One of the things women are saying now is: 'Are we moving forward or are we moving backward when our Caribbean counterparts are moving forward with representation of women in Cabinet?"

Meanwhile, the departure of young Progressive Labour Party Sen. Davida Morris leaves Sen. Wilson and Independent Sen. Carol-Ann Bassett as the only women in the upper house before the United Bermuda Party — whose only female Senator in the last Parliament was Sen. Gina Spence-Farmer — announces its three Senators.

In the House of Assembly, the Progressive Labour Party has five female MPs and 17 males. The United Bermuda Party has two women and 12 men.

Ms Butterfield, who also voiced concerns about continuity after the new Environment and Sports portfolio was given to Dr. Brown's former running mate El James, stressed she respected the Premier's authority to select Cabinet members of his own choice.

And she urged women not to be put off going into politics because of what has happened to herself.

Asked whether women were being overlooked or simply not coming forward, Ms Butterfield said: "I know that women are coming forward. The backbone of any political party is their women. I give praise and thanks to those women who have things to do but they still come out. They are the ones that organise things. They are always there. I am sure those women ... it's almost like saying equal rights again.

"I don't know if it's a matter of being overlooked. I think it's a matter of knowing that in today's society not just women but men want to see a balanced representation. That's why they vote for us.

"From the phone calls that I have received, it's my prayer that women will step forward and don't let what's happened to myself make them feel there's no purpose in them coming forward in politics."

Describing the importance of women's role in politics, she said: "Women's issues are everyone's issues. We raise our children, we clothe them, we do everything.

"Women's issues need to be protected and represented when it comes to legislation, parental issues, pregnancies, cracking the glass ceiling and getting more representation in the corporate world. I think we are great administrators and know how to get things done.

"Women need to go into politics. You take a risk, but if your heart is in it to serve your people, that's a risk you take. I have taken that risk — I'm pleased with what I have done. I have served the people to the best of my ability. I could have continued my career in international business but I gave up that for politics. I don't think I could do that with small children."

Quizzed about the underrepresentation of women shortly after announcing his team, Dr. Brown replied: "I hadn't noticed."

He said both females in his Government had jobs in very important areas, adding: "We just simply went for the best people we could find."

Former Health Minister Patrice Minors was offered a position in the new Cabinet but turned it down.

Retired MP Renee Webb, a Cabinet member alongside Ms Butterfield under former Premiers Dame Jennifer and Alex Scott, has been vocal on anti-women prejudice.

Ms Webb previously said: "Bermuda has much growing to do in the area of sexism. It's a problem, and taking steps to fix it would benefit everyone. I don't think things are getting better at all.

"My experience in the PLP on the floor of the House has also been that men can be very patronising when it comes to women."

Asked for her thoughts on women representation in Cabinet yesterday, interim Opposition leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said: "There does not seem to be a wholesale embracing of females on the Government benches, especially when one considers the unceremonious deposing of former Premier Smith at the hands of Premier Brown and his cohorts after the 2003 election and some of the subsequent anti-female sentiments expressed by some of that ilk, so the face of this Cabinet is not surprising to me at all."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said Dr. Brown's thinking may have been influenced by controversial decisions by female Cabinet members, such as Ms Butterfield's awarding of Sustainable Development Orders and Mrs. Minors' plans to build a new hospital at Botanical Gardens.

"It is a possibility that the Premier's choice to exclude females from his Cabinet was as a result of many decisions taken by female Ministers which were fraught with controversy," she said.

"Those actions, however, could only have been taken with the acquiescence of the full Cabinet, and as such, the female Ministers could not be held unilaterally responsible for the fallout, no matter how inane the decisions may have been.

"When the Government speaks of the empowerment of blacks, we in the United Bermuda Party are more concerned about fairness across the board, ensuring that all Bermudians have opportunities, that females are not in this century still beating their heads against a glass ceiling created by misogynists, that ageism is not a barrier to advancement, and that our boardrooms are representative of the talents of female executives."