1. Dame Mary Eugenia Charles was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995.
31 Facts About Eugenia Charles
1. 2.
Eugenia Charles was the second female prime minister in the Caribbean after Lucina da Costa of the Netherlands Antilles.
3.
Eugenia Charles was the first female in the Americas to be elected in her own right as head of government.
4.
Eugenia Charles served for the second longest period of any Dominican prime minister, and was the world's fourth longest-serving female prime minister, behind Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka and Indira Gandhi of India.
5.
Eugenia Charles was described as the "Iron Lady of the Caribbean".
6.
Eugenia Charles was born on 15 May 1919, in the fishing village of Pointe Michel in Saint Luke Parish, Dominica.
7.
Eugenia Charles's family was considered part of the "coloured bourgeoisie", descendants of free people of color.
8.
Eugenia Charles's father was a mason who became a wealthy landowner and had business interests in export-import.
9.
Eugenia Charles attended the Convent High School in Roseau, Dominica, which was then the island's only girls' secondary school, and St Joseph's Convent in Grenada.
10.
Eugenia Charles worked for many years as assistant to Alastair Forbes.
11.
Eugenia Charles attended the University of Toronto in Canada, receiving her LL.
12.
Eugenia Charles then moved to the United Kingdom to attend the London School of Economics, where she earned her LL.
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Eugenia Charles was a member of the sorority Sigma Gamma Rho.
14.
Eugenia Charles trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in London in 1947.
15.
Eugenia Charles passed the bar and returned to Dominica, where she became the island's first female lawyer.
16.
Eugenia Charles served as President of the Dominica Bar Association during the 1970s.
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Eugenia Charles worked as a director of the Dominican Cooperative Bank, which had been established by her father, and instituted the country's first student loan scheme.
18.
Eugenia Charles began campaigning in politics during the 1960s against restrictions on press freedom.
19.
Eugenia Charles wrote anonymous newspaper columns for The Herald and The Star criticising the Dominica Labour Party government.
20.
The party held its first convention in June 1969 and Eugenia Charles was appointed as its leader, a position she would hold until 1995.
21.
Eugenia Charles contested the Roseau North seat in the 1970 general election but lost to Patrick John.
22.
Eugenia Charles was elected to the House of Assembly in the 1975 general election, representing the constituency of Roseau Central and became the Leader of the Opposition.
23.
Eugenia Charles was a delegate at the 1977 constitutional conference at Marlborough House in London and actively supported Dominica gaining full independence from British rule in 1978.
24.
Eugenia Charles became prime minister when the DFP swept the 1980 general election, the party's first electoral victory.
25.
Eugenia Charles took over from Oliver Seraphin, who had taken over only the year before, when mass protests had forced the country's first prime minister, Patrick John, to step down from office.
26.
Eugenia Charles additionally served as Dominica's Foreign Minister from 1980 to 1990, Minister of Finance from 1980 to 1995, and as chairperson of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
27.
Eugenia Charles became more widely known to the outside world for her role in the lead-up to the United States Invasion of Grenada on 25 October 1983.
28.
Eugenia Charles appeared on television with US president Ronald Reagan, supporting the invasion.
29.
Eugenia Charles was re-elected in the 1985 general election and the 1990 general election.
30.
Eugenia Charles became involved in former US President Jimmy Carter's Carter Center, which promotes human rights and observes elections to encourage fairness.
31.
On 30 August 2005, Eugenia Charles entered a hospital in Fort-de-France, Martinique, for hip-replacement surgery.