Teshea, Isabel

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Teshea, Isabel

July 24, 1911
April 14, 1981

Isabel Ursula Teshea was the first woman elected to Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament. Hers was a humble home; her father, Thomas Cadogan, was a tailor, her mother, a homemaker. From early on young Isabel displayed the qualities of leadership and drive that would propel her into politics and two overseas ambassadorships. Always involved in social and community work even as a teaching assistant, in her early forties she founded a boys club in her neighborhood of Princes Town to keep the young out of mischief.

After an unsatisfactory marriage in 1938, and with no children of her own, in the 1950s Teshea turned her attention to the political scene, becoming an ardent supporter of nationalist leader Eric Williams, who would turn the country's colonialist machinery on its head. Her innate organizational and speaking skills, coupled with her links to village councils, quickly became a key factor in the formation of party groups for Trinidad and Tobago's first modern political party, the People's National Movement (PNM).

Teshea never missed a meeting, where throngs of people, most with no formal education, gathered to listen to "university dishes served with political sauce" à la Eric Williams, whose paramount mission was to "teach the people what one French writer of the 18th century saw as the greatest danger, that they had a mind" (Williams, 1969, p. 133).

By 1956 and in recognition of her sterling efforts, Teshea had been elected lady vice-chair of the PNM and, therefore, the first chairwoman of the PNM Women's League. She worked tirelessly to craft a passionate, vibrant, effective women's arm, which helped to ensure the party's success in general elections for six consecutive terms.

In 1961 Teshea served as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development and two years later was promoted to Minister of Health and Housing. By 1967 these two ministries had been divided, but she continued to hold the latter portfolio until 1970, when she was appointed Trinidad and Tobago's ambassador to Ethiopia and to the Organization of African Unity (in 1964, she had accompanied Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister, Eric Williams, on a tour of major African states).

A self-effacing yet charming individual, Isabel Teshea earned the respect of all who knew and worked with her. During her decades-long tenure as a government official, she addressed several areas of global, national, and regional concern, notably the 1972 United Nations population conference in Romania. As Trinidad and Tobago's high commissioner to Guyana from 1974 to 1977, she participated in the regional unification negotiations that resulted in the creation of CARICOM, the Caribbean Community and Common Market.

Retiring in 1977 and shunning further spotlight, Teshea passed away quietly. Her stellar example of public service and community spirit resulted in the 1981 posthumous award of her country's highest honor, the Trinity Cross. To the extent that she blazed a trail for her nation's modern women at a time when such a path was deemed unthinkable at best, Isabel Ursula Teshea's life remains a beacon of both hope and possibility.