VIEW FROM THE CWP
WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT: FOLLOWING AN INCREASINGLY WELL TRAVELED PATH
My country, Dominica, enjoys the distinction of having the first female leader in the Western Hemisphere. Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, or “Mamo” as she was popularly known, had a distinguished career as Prime Minister of Dominica for 15 years until she stepped down to make way for her successor in readiness for elections which were to take place in a few months. Dame Eugenia was a lawyer, politician and occasional journalist. She was born on 15 May 1919 in the village of Pointe Michel on the southwest coast of the island. Her father had a great influence on her attitude to life. Her mother was a practical, firm but loving guide who imbued her with a down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach to life.
It was her father, John Baptiste Charles, whose footsteps she followed. He was a self-made man who built himself up from youth as a stone mason and small farmer to being one of the leading plantation owners on the island. He was also an exporter of local produce to Great Britain and the United States. He founded his own bank, the Dominica Co-operative Bank. He was also a politician who fought and won elections in various constituencies. Young Eugenia was educated at convent schools in Dominica and Grenada. She persuaded her father to send her to the University of Toronto in Canada where
Dominica’s history which was very volatile and fraught with social and political upheaval. At every sitting of Parliament she was vilified by government Members, all men, in every way shape and form, about her gender, even her “privileged” social standing, the lot. But she ignored these unkind jibes and remained focused on her mission: to get into government and develop her country and its people. She promoted her party’s cause and campaigned tirelessly across the country, founding party branches and getting herself known to the electorate.
Hon. Alix Boyd Knights, MHA Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians
The constitution of Dominica provides that the position of Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee must be held by the Leader of Opposition. Never one to miss an opportunity, she used this position to great effect for with this position came her authority to demand financial documents from senior public servants to expose misspending by the government. Her tenacity both in and out of the House was beginning to pay off. By the late 1970s Miss Charles, as she then was, attracted broad respect and growing support from a critical mass of the electorate.
When, in 1975, the then Premier declared that he was taking Dominica into independence, Eugenia Charles went into top gear. Armed with her legal experience she demanded changes to the draft constitution and advocated that Dominica should go independent as a sovereign republic
she read law. From there she went over to England where she was called to the Bar at the Inns of Court in London in 1949. She immediately returned home and set up her practice and not long after began writing anonymous articles for local newspapers that were highly critical of the ruling party of the day, an activity which she kept up for the next 10 years alongside her legal work. By 1960 she went vocal with her criticisms and when the government, in reaction to mounting criticism, passed the Seditious and Undesirable Publications Act in July 1968, she was in the vanguard of those who lead the demonstrations against what they dubbed “the shut-your-mouth” Bill. With her allies she founded the Dominica Freedom Party, becoming its political leader. Her party contested the 1970 elections, but she failed to win her seat. She was, however, appointed as a “nominated Member” and entered the House of Assembly on 12 November 1970.
She won her seat at the next elections in 1975 and became Leader of the Opposition. Dame Eugenia spent four years as Opposition Leader, a period of
96 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Two without the British monarch as head of state.
She led the opposition delegation at the constitutional conference for independence held at Marlborough House in London in 1977 and was an active spokesperson in the public meetings related to the constitution in the run-up to independence in November 1978. During the political upheavals and the ensuing constitutional crisis in 1979, she served as a member of the Committee for National Salvation that brokered the creation of an interim government to administer Dominica until general elections could be organized. Eugenia Charles became the first female Prime Minister in the Caribbean and in the Western Hemisphere when her Dominica Freedom Party handsomely won the general election of 1980.
Her first order of business was to lead the reconstruction of Dominica which had been totally devastated by Hurricane David the year before. Not too long after, she had to cope with the attempted coups to overthrow her government. These were just some of the major challenges with which she had to cope during
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