The Tribune

DAME Janet Bostwick has been named the 2021 recipient of the prestigious CARICOM Triennial Award for Women.

The award is bestowed every three years.

The announcement was made during the closing day of the 40th Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Gender. The virtual meeting was held June 3-4.

Dame Janet joins a short list (13 in all with her selection) of distinguished Caribbean women to have received the award. Previous recipients include Dame Nita Barrow (deceased) of Barbados, Madam Justice Desiree Bernard of Guyana, Marion Bethel of The Bahamas, and Shirley Price (Jamaica), the 2017 recipient.

The CARICOM Triennial Award for Women is bestowed upon Caribbean women who have made significant contributions to the socio-economic development of the Caribbean Community and to the advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The award honours contributions in a wide range of fields of endeavours including agriculture, economics, law, politics, gender and development, religion, public service and trade unionism.

Nominations are accepted from national governments, non-governmental organisations, regional institutions and the private sector into the CARICOM Secretariat, which received submissions of ten nominees from six member states, including The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname.

The Regional Selection Committee comprised directors of gender affairs from Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts and Trinidad and Tobago.

Recipients receive a 14-carat brooch pendant with the CARICOM logo presented in a jewel box, as well as a scroll with a citation to the awardee in a leather cylindrical holder.

In recalling his first memory of Dame Janet being introduced to speak as the song “Something Inside So Strong” was playing in the background almost 40 years ago, Minister of Social Services and Urban Development Frankie Campbell said he knew then, as he knows now, that Dame Janet was truly committed to her beliefs in the empowerment of women and girls.

Dame Janet became politically active in 1976 as a member of the Free National Movement (FNM) and was appointed to the Senate in 1977. In 1982, she won the Yamacraw seat for her party, making her the first woman elected to the House. She would hold the seat for 20 consecutive years.

In 1992, after 25 years of Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) rule, the FNM won its first general election. Dame Janet was appointed to Cabinet.

She served in various ministerial capacities and in November 1994 she was appointed Attorney General – the first woman to hold that position in the country and the region.

She was also the first woman to act as Prime Minister and served as deputy to the Governor General on two occasions.

In 2019, she received her appointment as Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at an investiture at Buckingham Palace in 2019.