Firsts for women – 6 times women made history in 2021

THE year 2021 has been groundbreaking for women locally, regionally and internationally, with historic firsts in several key areas. Here are some of the announcements and accomplishments that wowed us.

Jamaican army to get first woman chief

The Jamaican army will get its first woman Chief of Defence, Commodore Antonette Wemyss Gorman, as the current head Lieutenant General Rocky Meade retires.

Wemyss Gorman will be promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in January 2022.

Gorman was among three senior Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) officers who were interviewed for the position.

She is a career officer whose 29 years of service has been characterised by notable achievement and exceptional service to the JDF.

She has performed at the strategic level of command within her technical area of expertise and in other domains both internal and external to the JDF.

Barbados names its first ever president

In 2018 Barbados elected its first woman prime minister since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, when Mia Mottley led her Barbados Labour Party to a crushing victory over the Democratic Labour Party.

This year, Dame Sandra Mason, 72, was also sworn in as the country’s first president, as the country transitioned to a republic status on the occasion which would have marked its 55th anniversary of independence from Britain.

“I congratulate Barbados on becoming the first country in the Caribbean with a female president and female prime minister, after [the] transition to a republic,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres on the occasion. “Women leaders have led inclusive responses to the #COVID19 and climate crises. Their leadership is needed more than ever…”

Jamaican Winsome Sears to be sworn-in a Virginia’s first woman Lt Governor

When Jamaican-born Winsome Sears assumes office on January 15, 2022, she will become the first woman lieutenant governor of Virginia.

Sears, a Republican, made history when she narrowly defeated her Democratic challenger, Hala Ayala, in the general elections on November 2, with 50.7 per cent of the vote.

A US Marine Corps veteran who was born in Kingston in 1964, she is also the first black woman to be elected to statewide office in Virginia.

“The only barrier that I really care about is the education of children, because education is what lifted my father out of poverty when he came from Jamaica in 1963,” she said after her narrow victory. “It’s what lifted me, and it’s what will lift everyone. That’s what I really want, because then you can dictate your own future.”

Elaine Thompson-Herah named World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year

Earlier this month, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah was named the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.

The Olympic Games triple gold medallist is the third Jamaican to win the award after Merlene Ottey and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

This was the third time the sprinter had been nominated for the prestigious award.

She became the first woman to win 100m, 200m and 4x100m golds at one Olympics since Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988. Thompson-Herah also clocked the second-fastest 100m and 200m times in history (10.54, 21.53), trailing only Griffith Joyner’s world records.

Kamala Harris makes history as first woman vice-president

US Vice President Kamala Harris broke the barrier that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries when she took the oath in January to hold the nation’s second-highest office. Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, has risen higher in the country’s leadership than any woman ever before her.

Hours after she was sworn in as the first female US vice president — and the first black woman and person of South Asian descent in the role — she cast the moment as one that embodied “American aspiration”.

Okonjo-Iweala is first woman, African to lead world trade body

In February, Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed to head the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming the first woman and first African to take on the role amid rising protectionism and disagreement over how the body decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs.

Okonjo-Iweala was named director general by representatives of the 164 countries that make up the WTO, which deals with the rules of trade between nations based on negotiated agreements.

She said during an online news conference that she was taking over at a time when the WTO “is facing so many challenges, and it’s clear to me that deep and wide-ranging reforms are needed… it cannot be business as usual.”

Her first priority would be quickly addressing the economic and health consequences of the novel coronavirus pandemic, such as by lifting export restrictions on supplies and vaccines and encouraging the manufacturing of vaccines in more countries.