Home Appointments Prime Minister
Prime Minister
Dominica Government
| Appointee | Eugenia Charles |
|---|---|
| Role | Prime Minister |
| Organisation | Dominica Government |
| Domain | Politics |
| Start | 21 July 1980 |
| End | 14 June 1995 |
| Notes | First woman elected as head of government in the Americas; longest-serving PM of Dominica |
Institutional context
The Prime Minister of Dominica is the head of government in the small Caribbean republic. The office dates to Dominican independence from the United Kingdom in November 1978. From 1978 through July 1980 every holder was male.
Career path
Mary Eugenia Charles (1919–2005) earned an LL.B. from the University of Toronto in 1947 and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics in 1949. She was the first woman called to the Bar in Dominica. She was associated with the Freedom Fighters movement that, through a 1968 merger with the National Democratic Movement, became the Dominica Freedom Party; she was elected its leader at the party's first convention in June 1969.
Appointment
The Dominica Freedom Party won the July 1980 general election and Charles was sworn in as Prime Minister on 21 July 1980. She is the first woman in the Americas to be elected as head of government in her own right.
Tenure
Fourteen years and ten months — the longest tenure of any Prime Minister in Dominica's history. Tenure included the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada, in which Charles played a prominent diplomatic role as chair of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, and substantial post-hurricane reconstruction following Hurricane David (1979) and Hurricane Hugo (1989).
Cluster context
Charles is the dataset's first elected first-woman head of government in the Western Hemisphere. Her 1980 appointment is contemporaneous with Pintasilgo's Portuguese caretaker premiership (August 1979) and Thatcher's UK premiership (May 1979).