As I en­tered the lob­by of the Prime Min­is­ter’s Res­i­dence, Sharon walked to­wards my di­rec­tion and in­stant­ly greet­ed me with a warm smile, as she gave me a sin­cere and wel­com­ing hug- “It is good to see you”, she said. Her smile, makes you hap­py on the in­side and it can dis­si­pate any feel­ings of dis­com­fort or ten­sion. Her voice is calm­ing, while her con­fi­dent grace­ful pres­ence il­lu­mi­nates the room. The gen­er­al pub­lic would have been fa­mil­iar with Sharon for over 30 years, of be­ing known as the fab­u­lous­ly dressed at­tor­ney and wife of the To­bag­on­ian born politi­cian - Dr Kei­th Christo­pher Row­ley.

Over the years, the pub­lic do­main would have de­scribed Sharon as pure class, grace­ful, so­phis­ti­cat­ed, as well as in­tel­li­gent and hum­ble, On the night of Sep­tem­ber 7th 2015 – as her hus­band Kei­th was vic­to­ri­ous at polls of the Gen­er­al Elec­tions, life as Sharon knew it would change. Overnight, she would have as­cend­ed to the ti­tle of, Mrs Sharon Clark Row­ley, wife of the Prime Min­is­ter of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Mrs. Clark-Row­ley is a prac­tis­ing at­tor­ney at law of thir­ty-six years stand­ing and is at present a part­ner with the firm of M. G. Daly & Part­ners, At­tor­neys-at-Law, where she heads the firm’s Con­veyanc­ing De­part­ment. Raised in Wood­brook, Port-of-Spain, Mrs. Clark-Row­ley at­tend­ed Bish­op Anstey Ju­nior School, fol­lowed by Bish­op Anstey High School, then the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and The Hugh Wood­ing Law School. In her ear­ly law ca­reer, she was an As­sis­tant Cor­po­rate Sec­re­tary at TSTT and a State Coun­sel in what is now the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

Dr. and Mrs. Row­ley have been mar­ried for thir­ty-four years and are the par­ents of two daugh­ters, Tonya, an at­tor­ney-at-law, and Sonel, a school psy­chol­o­gist, who is pur­su­ing post-doc­tor­al work in Neu­ro-Psy­chol­o­gy. Mrs. Clark-Row­ley takes her phil­an­thropic work very se­ri­ous­ly be­ing pa­trons to nu­mer­ous or­ga­ni­za­tions such as the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of On­col­o­gy and Haema­tol­ogy. She has al­so per­formed the role of event pa­tron for sev­er­al well in­ten­tioned caus­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In par­tic­u­lar, Mrs. Clark-Row­ley has sup­port­ed the work of the Down Syn­drome Net­work, the WAND Foun­da­tion (Women in Ac­tion for the Needy and Des­ti­tute), Ze­bapique Pro­duc­tions, a Kid­dies Car­ni­val Band, brought out by An­tho­ny and An­drew Al­leng, a band which aims to build the Laven­tille and en­vi­rons com­mu­ni­ty through cul­ture, the Laven­tille Nights Se­ries, En To To, a Non-Gov­ern­men­tal Or­gan­i­sa­tion ded­i­cat­ed to chang­ing our so­cial land­scape through youth-ori­ent­ed ini­tia­tives in Trinidad & To­ba­go and of course, her al­ma mater, Bish­op Anstey High School.

While main­tain­ing her le­gal pro­fes­sion, Mrs. Clark-Row­ley con­tin­ues to ad­vo­cate for the per­son­al de­vel­op­ment of the young peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, while be­ing mind­ful of the need to sup­port the el­der­ly, and, in keep­ing with the cel­e­bra­tion of women, both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, she cham­pi­ons the cause for Gen­der Equal­i­ty and Gen­der Eq­ui­ty. En­joy My Ex­clu­sive In­ter­view with Sharon as we get to know a lit­tle more about her.

Who is Sharon Row­ley?

Sharon Clark-Row­ley is a moth­er, grand­moth­er, wife, daugh­ter, sis­ter (sec­ond in a fam­i­ly of three girls) and an at­tor­ney-at-law. I have been prac­tis­ing law since 1982 and this year I would have been mar­ried for 34 years. I grew up in Wood­brook, in a close knit fam­i­ly – moth­er, fa­ther and two sis­ters.

What is your role as Wife of the Prime Min­is­ter?

I have no of­fi­cial role. I have no staff and I write my own speech­es, which I hope are mo­ti­va­tion­al. There is no of­fice of the Wife of the Prime Min­is­ter. I how­ev­er cham­pi­on cer­tain so­cial caus­es, per­form the role of pa­tron of cer­tain or­ga­ni­za­tions and of events which are dear to my heart. I have just re­lin­quished my role as pa­tron of the Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion so that I can as­sist oth­er en­ti­ties and I am at present pa­tron of the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of On­col­o­gy and Haema­tol­ogy

Peo­ple of­ten ask whether you con­tin­ue to work since your hus­band be­came Prime Min­is­ter in 2015. Can you bring clar­i­ty to this ques­tion?

I went to work at 8am on the morn­ing af­ter the Gen­er­al Elec­tions of the 7th Sep­tem­ber, 2015 and I have con­tin­ued to work. I work from 8am to 4.30pm-5.00pm. I be­lieve that it is im­por­tant to main­tain my in­de­pen­dence. I have stud­ied and worked hard to reach to where I am to­day and I like what I do.

How has the past thir­ty years pre­pared you for the role as wife of the Prime Min­is­ter?

Over the past thir­ty years I have moved from wife of an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor, wife of a Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter – Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Min­is­ter of Trade, wife of a back bencher, wife of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion and wife of the Prime Min­is­ter. From that line up you can see that I have had much prepa­ra­tion. Al­most a seam­less tran­si­tion. It has been a learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

With the ad­vent of so­cial me­dia there is con­stant pub­lic scruti­ny. How do you deal and cope with the neg­a­tive com­ments about your hus­band? Does it af­fect you in any way?

I am not on face­book for the very rea­son that there are many mean spir­it­ed in­di­vid­u­als whose at­tacks are hurt­ful and of­ten un­war­rant­ed. One should re­mem­ber that life is not al­ways a bed of ros­es. But there is al­so the good in so­cial me­dia which does have its own ben­e­fits and one should per­haps con­cen­trate on that which is good.

What is your opin­ion on women’s lib­er­al dress code in so­ci­ety to­day as it re­lates to how men treat them?

There is the stereo­typ­i­cal be­lief that women in­vite their own rapes, sex­u­al as­saults and sex­u­al ha­rass­ment in what they wear, their clothes be­ing a mark of im­plied con­sent. This can­not and should not be the stand that we take. While cloth­ing can be con­sid­ered to be a form of non-ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion and there must be lim­its to what we choose to wear (or not wear) in pub­lic men can­not be al­lowed to abuse our women or be ex­cused for wan­ton vi­o­lence and abuse. They must ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their ac­tions and bear the full brunt of the law for crimes com­mit­ted against women.

Do­mes­tic vi­o­lence cou­pled with the phys­i­cal and men­tal abuse of women is a se­ri­ous na­tion­al is­sue plagu­ing our coun­try – what do you think is the root of this is­sue and what can be done to ef­fec­tive­ly bring about change?

Lack of moral val­ues and re­spect. We must start at home to teach our boys and young men to re­spect our girls and young women. The book of Proverbs says ‘train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not de­part from it’. There must be di­a­logue in schools and homes on gen­der equal­i­ty, do­mes­tic vi­o­lence and the abuse of women.

How would you de­fine Women Em­pow­er­ment?

The process of mak­ing women more con­fi­dent. An em­pow­ered woman is one who knows her strengths and em­braces them. She is in con­trol of her life and is aware of her ca­pa­bil­i­ties. She makes mis­takes but learns from her mis­takes. She makes every ef­fort to em­pow­er oth­er women af­ter em­pow­er­ing her­self and she en­sures that both men and women stand up for jus­tice and equal­i­ty for all. While in Trinidad and To­ba­go we have made great strides to­wards gen­der equal­i­ty for all we still have a long way to go. It is im­pos­si­ble for us, as women, to achieve the goal of gen­der equal­i­ty/gen­der eq­ui­ty with­out the un­wa­ver­ing sup­port of our men.

What can women do in Trinidad and To­ba­go to em­pow­er them­selves?

Be self-aware, be your own role mod­el, ed­u­cate them­selves, re­spect them­selves. Un­der­stand that hard work, ded­i­ca­tion and dis­ci­pline are re­quired. Re­mem­ber that suc­cess is not fi­nal, fail­ure is not fa­tal, it is the courage to con­tin­ue that counts.

How do you cre­ate a bal­ance for your­self be­ing the wife of the Prime Min­is­ter, but al­so be­ing an at­tor­ney, a friend, moth­er, sis­ter and a grand­moth­er?

Very sim­ply put it is all about time man­age­ment wrapped in love. Love of job, love of fam­i­ly and love of friends.

What val­ues did your par­ents in­stil in you that make you the per­son you are to­day?

In­tegri­ty, hon­esty, schol­ar­ship and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty. Those val­ues tied in very nice­ly with my school mot­to at Bish­op Anstey High School – ‘Non Sine Pul­vere Pal­mam’ – not with­out dust the palm – very sim­ply put noth­ing comes with­out hard work.

Your daugh­ters are all grown up and have their own fam­i­lies. Tell me about your girls?

My hus­band and I are very proud of our daugh­ters, Tonya, an at­tor­ney at law, and the hold­er of a Mas­ter’s de­gree in cor­po­rate law from the Lon­don School of Eco­nom­ics and Sonel a Psy­chol­o­gist who has her doc­tor­ate in school psy­chol­o­gy and is now do­ing post grad­u­ate stud­ies in Neu­ro Psy­chol­o­gy. They have al­ways been very fo­cused, lov­ing and car­ing young peo­ple. My grand­son is the ap­ple of his grand­par­ents’ eyes and will be off to ‘big school’ – Bish­op Anstey Ju­nior School – in Sep­tem­ber, fol­low­ing in my foot­steps and those of my daugh­ters.

Name some women lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly who you ad­mire and what do you ad­mire about them?

Lo­cal­ly, per­sons such as Jan Ryan who is part of the lead­er­ship of WAND, and who gives of her time for the bet­ter­ment of the needy. These peo­ple care about the down­trod­den who should nev­er be for­got­ten. My moth­er who was the per­fect men­tor. I will have to say in­ter­na­tion­al­ly it is Michelle Oba­ma who I re­gard as an em­pow­ered black woman who has been an in­spi­ra­tion to many women, young and old, around the world. I am read­ing her book ‘Be­com­ing’ at this point in time.

How would you de­scribe your sense of style?

Clas­sic/Time­less/la­dy-like. I like the styles of the 1950’s - Au­drey Hep­burn, Brigitte Bar­dot. My wardrobe is a sea of colour in­ter­spersed with tra­di­tion­al black. I al­ways sup­port our lo­cal de­sign­ers, too many to name. Most of our lo­cal de­sign­ers are at the top of their game and can eas­i­ly com­pete on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

Tell us one thing that most peo­ple don’t know about you?

If I didn’t prac­tise law I would be an artist but I’m mind­ful of the fact that up and com­ing artists need to sup­ple­ment their in­come, so I would have had to have an oc­cu­pa­tion to fall back on. I have a pur­ple belt in karate – I did karate while at school. I al­so held the long jump record at high school for a while.

What is the one thing you have main­tained as a con­stant through­out your life that has helped and guid­ed you?

An un­shake­able faith in God.

What do you do for fun?

It sounds shal­low but shop­ping is per­haps my on­ly ‘vice’; at Car­ni­val time it is a good ‘All In­clu­sive’ or a Back in Times Fete where the mu­sic of the 1970’s and 1980’s reigns supreme.

What does the fu­ture hold for you? Any­thing with­in the po­lit­i­cal are­na?

Ab­solute­ly noth­ing in the po­lit­i­cal are­na. I have no such as­pi­ra­tions. I am now 60 and I re­tire in a few years’ time. I look for­ward to my re­tire­ment and I hope that I will be in good health and am able to en­joy it.

What words of ad­vice would you like to give to the young women (and men) of our coun­try?

What­ev­er your cir­cum­stances in life - where ever you come from, how much mon­ey you may have, what­ev­er your race or re­li­gion – these things should not pre­vent you from re­al­iz­ing your full po­ten­tial. These things should nev­er ham­per your as­pi­ra­tions. Be the best that you can be.

PHO­TO CRED­ITS

Pho­tog­ra­phy: Gary Jor­dan

Hair: Ashvin Bal­ly

Make-up: Ka­t­ri­na Lay­doo of The MUA House

Styling & Cre­ative Di­rec­tion: Bri­an Matthew

Wardrobe: Clau­dia Pe­gus, Pe­ter Elias & Charu Lochan Dass

Jew­el­ry: The Gallery, Long Cir­cu­lar Mall

Pro­duc­tion As­sis­tants: Ar­i­ann Thomp­son & Aman­da El­liot