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
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
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 Bermudian
Black Bermudians, African Bermudians, Afro-Bermudians or Bermudians of African descent, are Demographics of Bermuda, Bermudians with any appreciable Black people, Black African ancestry (though some individuals may have a degree of admixture of Af ...
s 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
Ewart Frederick Brown Jr. (born 1946) is a politician and physician who served as the ninth Premier of Bermuda and leader of the country's Progressive Labour Party (PLP) from 2006 to 2010. He represented Warwick South Central as a Member of P ...
, 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