CELEBRATING FEMALE FIRE-POWER IN THE TURKS AND CAICOS

On Sunday 8 March countries around the world mark International Womens’ Day. I’m pleased that Turks and Caicos will be joining in those celebrations. We have a great deal to be proud of.

In politics our country’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Education, Youth and Sport is Akierra Missick. Her position as Minister of Youth is most apposite, as she hit the political stage in her early 30s. Two of her Ministerial colleagues are of course The Hon Porsha Stubbs Smith, Minister of Tourism, the Environment and Culture, and the Hon Amanda Misick, Minister of Government Support Services, and the Honourable Sharlene leads the opposition. So there is certainly no shortage of female firepower on the front benches of the House!

The same is true of our Judicial and Legal top positions. Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles is the first female Attorney-General of Turks and Caicos, and was honoured by being made Person of the Year by the Weekly News newspaper.Our new-ish Chief Justice, Margaret Ramsey-Hale, is also the first woman to hold that key office of our country, and our deputy Public Prosecutor is the youthful Angela Brookes, who I hope might in the next year or so return for a short spell to the UK to work with the Crown Prosecution Service there.

As if that isn’t sufficient evidence of how extraordinarily well-placed we are in demonstrating the achievements of women, our Public Service is ably lead by my Deputy, the Hon Anya Williams, a former Permanent Secretary, and her senior management team has a majority of women, including the heads of Finance, Health and Environment. The heads of a number of our Statutory bodies, including the Public Service, Human Rights (both chair and director) and Complaints are also lead with authority by ladies of distinction who have served our islands for many years.

So we are in an excellent place as far as the promotion of women to senior positions is concerned, although of course there is never room for complacency.  I have been struck, for example,  in my many dealings with the Royal Turks and Islands Police Force that there are scarcely any women in the senior ranks. I am sure that will change over time.

We should all be justly proud of the women I have mentioned, as well as several others, like Edith Cox at IGA and Evelyn Adams at the Do It Centre, in senior positions in business. But I know that they would all insist that we should also celebrate the contribution of thousands of other women in our islands, who work more anonymously, educating our children, running our healthcare centres, supporting the big resorts, protecting our borders, and bringing up the next generation.

Most appropriately I am delighted that the Attorney-General has accepted my invitation to write a “guest blog” this month, describing her visit to London to represent our country at some important, international  legal events. Watch this space!