AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

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.”