Jan­ice Lear­mond-Criqui

jan­icel­criqui@gmail.com

I was mo­ti­vat­ed spir­i­tu­al­ly to write this ar­ti­cle. The first ques­tion I asked my­self was, which women in T&T that I knew, I could hon­est­ly say were em­pow­er­ing women? Then I re­mem­bered four of them.

Bish­op’s Cen­te­nary Col­lege, my al­ma mater, had three aca­d­e­m­ic hous­es that stu­dents were placed in­to by Ms Stan­ford (a for­mi­da­ble woman who was al­ways tra­di­tion­al­ly dressed, taught Eng­lish and said that bad Eng­lish hurts her ears) and the hous­es would take part in com­pe­ti­tions. The names of the hous­es were af­ter three women–Au­drey Jef­fers, Beryl McBurnie, and Winifred Atwell. It be­came very ob­vi­ous to us girls that she favoured Au­drey Jef­fers be­cause she would put the girls who ap­peared in­tel­li­gent and whose par­ents had mon­ey in­to that house. The mid­dle-in­come girls were put in­to Beryl McBurnie’s house (my house) and the rest in­to Winifred Atwell’s house. But Beryl McBurnie’s house would win the ma­jor­i­ty of the com­pe­ti­tions year af­ter year.

I have not heard their names called of­ten over the years as women who have been em­pow­er­ing oth­ers and leav­ing a lega­cy.

Who were these women?

Au­drey Jef­fers

Au­drey Jef­fers was a pi­o­neer for so­cial work and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment in T&T. In 1921, she es­tab­lished The Co­terie of So­cial Work­ers (COSW) as a way to com­bine every­thing that she fought for: women’s rights, im­prove­ment for the less for­tu­nate, and rights for peo­ple of African de­scent with their mot­to be­ing “We lift as we climb.” Un­der the COSW, un­der­priv­i­leged stu­dents were pro­vid­ed with free lunch­es and in 1926 she es­tab­lished a “Break­fast Shed” in Port-of-Spain and lat­er in oth­er ar­eas.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion even found­ed homes for the blind, el­der­ly, “women in dis­tress” and day nurs­eries to as­sist work­ing women. In 1936, she was the first woman to ever be elect­ed to the Port-of-Spain City Coun­cil, ap­point­ed to the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil in 1946, and then made an Of­fi­cer of the Or­der of the British Em­pire in 1959.

Beryl McBurnie

Beryl McBurnie is known as the First La­dy of Dance. A dancer and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, she es­tab­lished The Lit­tle Carib The­atre in 1948. She show­cased the beau­ty and rich­ness of West In­di­an dance and in­dige­nous cul­ture to the world stage. Her in­ter­pre­ta­tions which were deeply root­ed in the Caribbean were re­gard­ed as mas­ter­pieces. Leav­ing be­hind fame and for­tune out­side of Trinidad, she re­turned home and be­came a trail­blaz­er and men­tor, in­spir­ing count­less oth­ers to pur­sue and ap­pre­ci­ate the art form she loved. Her sto­ry high­lights the im­por­tance of valu­ing and pre­serv­ing in­dige­nous cul­tur­al ex­pres­sions, even in the face of ex­ter­nal in­flu­ences. Her com­mit­ment left a last­ing im­pact on the artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty and cul­tur­al her­itage of the Caribbean.

Winifred Atwell

Winifred Atwell, a renowned pi­anist from T&T and known for her mas­tery of rag­time, pro­duced nu­mer­ous hit songs that res­onat­ed with au­di­ences world­wide. Her tal­ent and unique style cap­tured the at­ten­tion of mu­sic lovers, lead­ing to her im­mense pop­u­lar­i­ty. Her records sold mil­lions of copies, so­lid­i­fy­ing her po­si­tion as a high­ly suc­cess­ful mu­si­cian. She achieved a num­ber-one hit in the UK Sin­gles Chart in 1956, an in­cred­i­ble ac­com­plish­ment that show­cased her wide-reach­ing ap­peal. Her suc­cess as a pi­anist from T&T helped pave the way for oth­er Caribbean artistes, in­spir­ing fu­ture gen­er­a­tions to pur­sue their artis­tic pas­sions and em­brace their cul­tur­al her­itage.

San­dra Des Vi­gnes

My last pick of an em­pow­ered woman is San­dra Des Vi­gnes aka Singing San­dra, a top ca­lyp­son­ian in T&T. That woman moved me on an emo­tion­al lev­el with her song “Voic­es from the Ghet­to”. In an in­ter­view with Michael Good­win in Caribbean­Beat mag­a­zine, she told him that she had no re­grets grow­ing up and liv­ing in the ghet­to. She said that the ghet­to teach­es you some­thing of val­ue, es­pe­cial­ly the strug­gle to sur­vive. The peo­ple from the ghet­to share a kind of love and take care of each oth­er there, that peo­ple who are not from there would not un­der­stand. Her mo­ti­va­tion came from Spar­row who was her men­tor.

Women to­day need em­pow­ered women who they can em­u­late so that they, too, can be­come em­pow­ered. These re­mark­able women, among many oth­ers, have demon­strat­ed the pow­er of de­ter­mi­na­tion, re­silience, and pas­sion in em­pow­er­ing women in T&T. Through their ac­com­plish­ments, they have shat­tered stereo­types, paved the way for change, and in­spired oth­ers to pur­sue their dreams fear­less­ly. By high­light­ing these ex­am­ples, we cel­e­brate their achieve­ments and en­cour­age con­tin­ued ef­forts to­ward gen­der equal­i­ty and the em­pow­er­ment of women in T&T.

Jan­ice Lear­mond-Criqui, CPC, CaribDE, Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al Coach, per­son­al de­vel­op­ment and soft skills train­er, and mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er.