JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, March 17, 2025

Hazel Manning empowering women in leadership

by

Angelo Jedidiah
8 days ago
20250308

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

For In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day 2025, the theme “Ac­cel­er­ate Ac­tion” has struck a chord with many, re­new­ing the call to fast-track progress to­ward gen­der equal­i­ty and women’s em­pow­er­ment. But for for­mer politi­cian Hazel Man­ning, this isn’t just a slo­gan—it has al­ways been her life’s mis­sion.

As a for­mer sen­a­tor and min­is­ter of ed­u­ca­tion and lo­cal gov­ern­ment, Man­ning has faced her fair share of up­hill bat­tles as a woman in Par­lia­ment.

Speak­ing with WE mag­a­zine, Man­ning made ref­er­ence to Is­abel Ur­su­la Teshea, our first woman elect­ed to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the first woman to serve as an am­bas­sador for this coun­try. She al­so spoke about Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar who be­came this coun­try’s first fe­male at­tor­ney gen­er­al.

Man­ning ac­knowl­edged that for any of these women, the jour­ney was nev­er easy and sure­ly came with its fair share of chal­lenges.

“Lead­er­ship is dif­fi­cult. Life is dif­fi­cult, you know, but through dis­ci­pline, through self-aware­ness and spir­i­tu­al growth, in­di­vid­u­als can over­come chal­lenges and can lead ful­fill­ing lives,” Man­ning said.

“One of the things we are re­al­is­ing is that there was no sup­port, there was no hand-hold­ing to get in­to the sys­tem.”

With the many port­fo­lios she held in her po­lit­i­cal and per­son­al ca­reer, Mrs Man­ning is no­tably known as well as the wife of the for­mer prime min­is­ter, the late Patrick Man­ning. She said that in any of these po­si­tions, she felt it was es­sen­tial to up­lift women.

Now, as a lead­er­ship and life coach, Man­ning con­tin­ues to in­spire var­i­ous groups through her words. How­ev­er, through her mem­ber­ship in or­gan­i­sa­tions like the Women Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of Trinidad and To­ba­go, led by Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George, she has ded­i­cat­ed much of her time to en­cour­ag­ing young girls to pur­sue pub­lic ser­vice.

One of the on­go­ing projects the es­teemed group of women par­lia­men­tar­i­ans is cham­pi­oning is the fight for gen­der-based bud­get­ing—en­sur­ing that gov­ern­ment bud­gets and na­tion­al fi­nan­cial de­ci­sions con­sid­er gen­der equal­i­ty and in­clu­siv­i­ty.

Man­ning en­cour­aged women to stay aware of their en­vi­ron­ment and po­lit­i­cal rights to fight for what is right. She re­mind­ed them to stand their ground in dif­fi­cult or un­fair sit­u­a­tions, em­pha­sis­ing that women should men­tor each oth­er and stand side by side as they pave their paths in so­ci­ety.

“As we the Women Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans are do­ing to over­come the chal­lenges and to lead at the end of the day, ful­fill­ing lives. Not on­ly for our­selves but for our coun­try, be­cause we know that when we sup­port a woman, we sup­port a vil­lage. Don’t give up. We’re go­ing to get there.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored