14th
August 2012
Caribbean
Women At Their Best
Merissa Stephen
Many women have
proven themselves to the world, whether through
sports as seen in the recent Olympics, or in
entertainment, whether in the household as breadwinners
or in the political arena. Here are a few of
the Caribbean’s political leaders- women
at their best.
Charles, a
member of the Freedom Party, is the first woman
to become Prime Minister in the Caribbean. Mary
Eugenia Charles served as Prime minister of
Dominica from 21st July 1980 to 14th June 1995.
She is the second black woman to rule in the
world and is the first Caribbean (and American)
female premier, as well as the third American
female ruler.
Born 15th May
1919 in Dominica, she died at age 86. Mary is
to date Dominica’s only female prime minister,
the nation’s longest serving prime minister
and the world’s third longest-serving
female Prime Minister. She was the first woman
elected in her own right as head of government
in the Americas.
Eugenia Charles
attended the Convent School in Dominica and
became interested in law while working at the
colonial magistrate’s court. She attended
the University of Toronto and the London School
of Economics. Charles passed the bar and returned
to Dominica where she also became the island’s
first female lawyer, specialising in property
law. Charles never married or had children and
in 1991, she was made a Dame Commander of the
Order of the British Empire.
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot
is the first woman elected President of Haiti,
acting in office from March 13, 1990 to –
February 7, 1991. Born on August 13, 1943 in
Haiti, she was an affiliate of the Independent
political party. Pascal-Trouillot was chief
justice when she temporarily became Haïti’s
first female president following a revolt that
overthrew the then government. Her job as provisional
head was to coordinate the transition to democracy
with the Council of State, which had veto power
over her. She oversaw the first truly free elections
in Haiti on December 16, 1990.
Ertha was a
lawyer by profession, graduating from the École
de Droit des Gonaives in Port-au-Prince in 1971.
Her father was an iron worker and her mother,
a seamstress and embroiderer. Pascal-Trouillot
was the 9th of 10 children and at 10 yrs was
mentored by her future husband, Ernst Trouillot,
who was 21 years her senior.
Ertha became
the first woman justice of the Haitian Supreme
Court. She later decided to live away from the
public eye, working on drafting volumes of the
Biographical Encyclopedia of Haïti.
Claudette Werleigh
(born 1946) is the first female Prime Minister
of Haïti, serving from November 7th, 1995
to February 7th, 1996. She previously held the
positions of Executive Director of the Haitian
embassy in Washington, D.C. and Minister of
Foreign Affairs and of Religion in 1993-1995.
She also served as Secretary General of Caritas
Haiti for 10 years, coordinating relief assistance,
civic education and respect for human rights.
Though the daughter
of a well-off business family and growing up
on the brighter side of Haiti’s social
fabric, Claudette was conscious of issues at
the grassroots level. As a young adult, she
focused on justice for those caught in Haiti’s
disparate social structure and was drawn to
the field of education – specifically
adult literacy. She started a school for adults
and rural Haitian farmers which was community-owned
and has been running for 33 years.
Werleigh is
known to have worked with diverse communities
in conflict and those transitioning out of war
and violence around the world. “The widening
gap is not only between rich and poor nations
but also between classes within a same single
country,” she says, of the chasm she’s
spent her life working to bridge.
Michèle
Duvivier Pierre-Louis (Born 5 October 1947 in
Haiti) was Prime Minister of Haiti from September
2008 to November 2009 and was a member of the
Independent political party. She is Haiti’s
second female Prime Minister after Claudette
Werleigh.
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