Beckles celebrates women’s leadership on International Women’s Day

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ex­tend­ed greet­ings to women across Trinidad and To­ba­go, prais­ing their strength, re­silience and con­tri­bu­tions to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment as the coun­try marks In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day.

In a mes­sage is­sued to­day, Beck­les said the an­nu­al ob­ser­vance pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ho­n­our the achieve­ments of women while recog­nis­ing the strength, sac­ri­fice and lead­er­ship they bring to every sphere of so­ci­ety.

“For 51 years Trinidad and To­ba­go has joined the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty in cel­e­brat­ing In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day. It is an op­por­tu­ni­ty not on­ly to ho­n­our the achieve­ments of women, but al­so to re­flect on the strength, sac­ri­fice, and lead­er­ship that women bring to every sphere of our so­ci­ety.”

Beck­les said women con­tin­ue to play vi­tal roles in homes, com­mu­ni­ties, work­places, schools and na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions.

She al­so point­ed to what she de­scribed as a his­toric mo­ment in the coun­try’s his­to­ry, not­ing that for the first time since in­de­pen­dence three of the coun­try’s high­est of­fices are held by women, the Pres­i­dent, the Prime Min­is­ter and the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion.

She said the mile­stone sends an im­por­tant mes­sage to young girls grow­ing up in Trinidad and To­ba­go that lead­er­ship at the high­est lev­els is with­in their reach.

“Our his­to­ry as a na­tion has been shaped by the courage and de­ter­mi­na­tion of strong women. From the strug­gles of our fore­moth­ers who en­dured slav­ery and in­den­ture­ship, to those who fought for so­cial jus­tice, ed­u­ca­tion, and equal op­por­tu­ni­ty, women have al­ways played a defin­ing role in defin­ing the char­ac­ter and moral fab­ric of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Beck­les said women re­main cru­cial at a time when the coun­try faces chal­lenges and cit­i­zens are seek­ing hope and com­pas­sion.

She en­cour­aged women to sup­port and men­tor younger gen­er­a­tions through ini­tia­tives such as the “Give to Gain” cam­paign, which pro­motes shar­ing time, ex­pe­ri­ence, com­pas­sion and men­tor­ship with young peo­ple.

“I en­cour­age women across our na­tion to con­tin­ue shar­ing their ex­pe­ri­ences, guid­ing our young girls, and em­pow­er­ing them to grow in­to con­fi­dent lead­ers, re­spon­si­ble cit­i­zens, and lov­ing moth­ers.”

Beck­les al­so re­flect­ed on her role as Pres­i­dent of the Women Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s ef­forts to en­cour­age greater par­tic­i­pa­tion by women in pol­i­tics and na­tion­al lead­er­ship.

She said ap­pli­ca­tions for the group’s YES! Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme re­main open un­til Mon­day, March 9, 2026.

Quot­ing from the po­em “Lega­cy” by Rupi Kaur, Beck­les said:

“I stand on the sac­ri­fices

of a mil­lion women be­fore me,

think­ing,

what can I do to make this moun­tain taller,

so the women af­ter me can see far­ther?”