The Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies is staging a two-day conference on March 27 and March 28, entitled “Fearless politics, the life and times of Hazel Brown,” as part of its observation of International Women’s Day 2015.
Designed principally to highlight the contribution of this tireless fighter for women’s, political and social rights which spans more than three decades, among those expected to speak is Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has had a long relationship with Brown in her battles. Brown today recalls some of the momentous occasions along the way and speaks of the negatives facing the PM because of her gender.
Q: Miss Brown, you are being celebrated by UWI at month’s end. Is this your crowning glory?
A: (In the library at the Barataria-based Telecommunications Authority of T&T, of which she is a board member, Wednesday afternoon, I have a very different view of those events.) I am a paper hoarder, I have at home a whole room full of paper from all the stuff I have done from the 70s to now. I am trying to figure what I am going to do with all that stuff because it records virtually everything that I have done; hand written things like commentaries in the newspapers…
Miss Brown, you wore so many labels during this period I don’t know exactly where to start having been there witnessing almost every one of them—Hazel Brown the politician; the Housewife Association of T&T (Hatt) activist; Tug (Telephone Users’ Group) which fought against the increased rates sought by the then Telco), breast feeding advocate, contesting a general election, solar cooking.
I recall saying to myself when you took a stove into Woodford Square and prepared a meal using solar energy, “This woman mad...?”
Yes, and we ate it (a hearty laugh). Women’s issues, school book prices, consumer goods prices, development of the civil society sector, and on and on...
(Laughs again).
You would never guess the one incident that always make me think about you.
(Interest sparked, eyes lit up) I have no idea...
Remember I tried speaking to you during the 1976 general election campaign when you ran as an Independent against Dr Cuthbert Joseph of the PNM for the Port-of-Spain East seat, when I wanted to get an interview and you told me sharply, ” Listen, Raphael, don’t bother me, I have an election to win?”
(Loud laugh sailing across the reading room) Yes. That was a really great experience, and remember that was coming out of Hatt where we had five women from four different parties, and I fought as an Independent. Of course, it was only seven years after that the political parties themselves could go back and say, remember when in 1976 “I told you that we had to come together to win that seat.”
Since then you were thinking about coalition government?
Yes. Yes. And proposing it to men who did not understand that the culture of political parties had to change. Of course, I have since done a lot of work with women in politics on a non-partisan basis to train and encourage them to participate in the politics starting with local government, and we have had great success. I now have people who I can be proud of who have become local government councillors, know what they are about and have made a difference in local government.
Did you have a hand in the early stages of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s political development?
Well, I did work with Mrs Persad-Bissessar with the NAR, so way back then we were in a different environment, and under Mr Robinson’s leadership women were given all kinds of opportunities and she benefitted from that as well. We have always worked together in carrying forward the women’s agenda in the political arena. In fact, when she took the decision to contest the party (UNC) elections, I encouraged and supported her because if women were to make the breakthrough into the politics, they had to break through the party first.
I also remember clearly when you were asking for a certain percentage of women to contest elections and some people were saying, “What is wrong with these women, why do they want a certain percentage of the seats?”
(Bursts out laughing again)
That’s right, 50 per cent. Mr Robinson launched the 50-50 campaign for us, and he said women should form part of the seats because women were half of the population.
In T&T we just got to 29, but that is a lot better than the United States and a lot of other places where the numbers are still at 12, 14, and 15. When we started this campaign which was an international one, because of the rate at which the increase was taking place, it would have taken us 75 years to get to 50 per cent if we did not get up and do something serious to propel the women to move forward to prepare themselves.
Is it your belief, Miss Brown, that it is sufficient to put women there simply for the sake of having them in a male-dominated scenario?
No. The same argument applies to Mrs Persad-Bissessar. It was not sufficient just to put her there, she must be put there and continually supported because this was a male-dominated environment. All of us know what she had to put up with in respect of those men she had to work with. On her own, she has done a great job I think. But she did not get the support that was required for her to fully achieve the expectations that were made in 2010.
What do you mean by she did not get the required support, didn’t she win the election?
No, I mean after the election. Remember winning was the easy part. The more difficult part is how do you manage, control the situation in order to achieve your objectives.
Are you saying she did not get the support of women after the election?
Yes. Yes. OK, let met put it another way. I think she would have done better if she got an ongoing support from many more women, but that doesn’t mean to say there aren’t women who continue to support her. And support does not necessarily mean you support everything she does.
It also means saying “What you are doing there is not making sense. Try something else.” And, Clevon, there are two things she is up against.
Which are?
The concept of elections in T&T, whether it is a friendly society or a co-op, is vote them out. That is the culture...vote them out (heavy chuckling) and then you are a woman, “You have no right (cynically) to be there in the first place.”
In spite of your hard-fought efforts to make a positive difference to the numerous challenges is there still a suspicion, if I my call it that, when women attempt to crash through the male-dominated so-called glass ceiling?
Yes. And you will remember the Kamla “No woman No cry” speech, which I think was the best speech she ever wrote, in which she described her travels as a woman through the political terrain when she said she would not go down again. That she quite understood the culture of the male-dominated political scenario and she had a strategy to deal with it otherwise she would not have been able to defeat Panday
Finally, Miss Brown, are you of the opinion that becoming the country’s first woman Prime Minister she was able to advance the cause of women in the front pews of our political landscape?
(Resolutely answering) Yes. Absolutely and here is the evidence—in every single other party in T&T women have challenged the leadership, which never happened before. That is why Penelope could have challenged Rowley, Dyer could become the chairman of the COP, Carolyn Seepersad could challenge Prakash. These things never happened before.
Last and final (laughs) question, Miss Brown, do you still have that fire in your soul to take on some of those issues which still remain alive today?
I have told people, I now know when to shut up. There is a time to talk and a time to say nothing. I know which battles to choose much better than I did before, and I tell the young activist you have to learn the skills of advocacy which sometimes require you to just shut up. And now I have to shut up, because I am preparing to catch a flight abroad where I will be for approximately one week.