Gloria Juanita McPhee

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(née Darrell; 10 November 1926 – 18 February 2007) was a Bermudian politician who served as a member of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

from 1968 to 1980, representing the

United Bermuda Party The United Bermuda Party (UBP) was a political party in Bermuda, which represented itself as centrist party with a moderate social and fiscal agenda. The party held power in Bermuda's House of Assembly continuously from 1968 to 1998, the 47-year ...

(UBP). She was a government minister from 1968 to 1977, the first woman appointed to the ministry. McPhee was educated in the United States, attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she met and married a Bahamian student, George McPhee. She had initially wanted to be a dentist, but instead trained as a laboratory technician and worked at her husband's medical practice in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

.Gloria McPhee
'' The Royal Gazette'', 20 February 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2017. McPhee was active in the community, and in 1966 was recruited by the UBP as one of its first two female candidates, along with Pearl Adderley.
History of the United Bermuda Party
'. Retrieved 30 November 2017. At the 1968 election, the first to be held under

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...

, she was elected to the two-member Hamilton West constituency alongside

John Stubbs John Stubbs (or Stubbe) (c. 1544 – after 25 September 1589) was an English pamphleteer, political commentator and sketch artist during the Elizabethan era. He was born in the County of Norfolk, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. ...

, another UBP member; one of their defeated opponents was Walter Robinson, the leader of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP). After the 1968 election, McPhee was appointed Minister of Health and Social Affairs in the government of Henry Tucker – the first Bermudian woman appointed to cabinet. She was instead made Minister of Education and Libraries after the 1972 election, and Minister of Planning, House, and Environment after the 1976 election. In 1975, McPhee helped found the Black Caucus, a group of UBP members who felt that Black Bermudians were underrepresented in the party. She was critical of Premier John Sharpe, and in February 1977 issued a statement accusing him of "moving towards a dictatorial premiership" characterised by "indecisiveness" and "shortsightedness";Greening, Benedict (2014)
‘This Island's Mine’: Anglo-Bermudian power-sharing and the politics of oligarchy, race and violence during late British decolonisation, 1963–1977
(PhD thesis), London School of Economics, p. 213. she and three allies resigned from cabinet later that month. She left politics at the 1980 election, and publicly endorsed the PLP candidate in her old seat. McPhee died in February 2007, aged 80. Her sister, Helene Brown, was also a member of parliament, and her nephew, Ewart Brown, served as premier from 2006 to 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McPhee, Gloria 1926 births 2007 deaths Members of the House of Assembly of Bermuda Ministers of Education of Bermuda Ministers of the Environment of Bermuda Ministers of Health of Bermuda Housing ministers of Bermuda Planning ministers of Bermuda Social affairs ministers of Bermuda Women government ministers of Bermuda Howard University alumni United Bermuda Party politicians