Janet Rosenberg Jagan (October 20, 1920 – March 28, 2009) was a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

-born Guyanese politician who served as the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

, serving from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She was the first female President of Guyana. She previously served as the first female

Prime Minister of Guyana The prime minister of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana is an elected member of the National Assembly of Guyana who is the principal assistant and advisor to the president as well as the leader of government business in the Assembly, but is n ...

from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997. The wife of

Cheddi Jagan Cheddi Berret Jagan (22 March 1918 – 6 March 1997) was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 199 ...

, whom she succeeded as president, she was awarded Guyana's highest national award, the Order of Excellence, in 1993, and the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

Gold Medal for Women's Rights in 1998.Hinds, David. "Janet Jagan and the Politics of Ethnicity in Guyana" in Cynthia Barrow-Giles, ed. ''Women in Caribbean Politics'' Kingston, Miami: Ian Randle, 2011. Skard, Torild. "Janet Jagan", ''Women of power - half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide'', Bristol: Policy Press, 2014.

Early years and marriage

Jagan was born Janet Rosenberg to middle-class

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents on the south side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, on October 20, 1920.Profile of Janet Jagan
, jagan.org.Rohter, Larry

''The New York Times'', 14 December 1997. Her maternal grandparents, Adolph and Rosa Kronberg (née Appelbaum), were Jewish immigrants. Adolph immigrated to Chicago from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and Rosa came from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. In December 1942, aged 22, while working as a student nurse at

Cook County Hospital The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, along with Provident Hospital of Cook County and ...

, she met

, an

Indo-Guyanese Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...

dentistry student at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. They married on August 5, 1943, and in December that year she moved with him to Guyana, where he set up his dental practice.

In Guyana

In Guyana, she took part in labour activism along with her husband and joined the British Guianese Labour Union. She also worked in her husband's dental clinic as a nurse for 10 years. In 1946, she founded the Women's Political and Economic Organization and co-founded the Political Affairs Committee.

Political career

Janet Jagan unsuccessfully ran for a seat from Central Georgetown in the 1947 general election. On January 1, 1950,History of the PPP
PPP website. she and her husband were co-founders of the left-wing People's Progressive Party (PPP); Janet served as the PPP's General Secretary from 1950 to 1970. Also in 1950, Jagan was elected to the Georgetown City Council. She was subsequently elected to the House of Assembly in the April 1953 election,"The General Election of 1953"
Guyana.org. winning a seat from Essequibo constituency. She was one of three women to win seats in that election; following the election, she was chosen as Deputy Speaker of the Legislature. The PPP, a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

party, opposed British colonial rule of Guyana. After its electoral victory in April 1953, the PPP briefly formed the government, but the British government had the PPP government removed later in the year due to concerns about the Jagans' alleged communist sympathies. Leading the country for only 133 days in 1953 following the free and universal election, she and Cheddi were first deposed and then jailed in 1955 on orders of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

who feared the existence of a

communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comint ...

in the Western Hemisphere. Churchill wished to prevent the potential for the Soviet Union to form ties with the new government, though this never occurred. Cheddi and Janet remained in jail for five months; they were subsequently kept under house arrest for two years. Churchill had modified the Guyanese constitution to prevent her and Cheddi from holding the office of President or Prime Minister. In 1957, she was re-elected to the House of Assembly from Essequibo constituency and became Minister of Labour, Health and Housing. Retaining his popularity, in 1961, Cheddi was re-elected Prime Minister. Janet later succeeded Claude Christian as Minister of Home Affairs upon Christian's death in 1963, but resigned from the Cabinet in 1964. As a member of the Elections Commission for the opposition in 1967, she expressed concern about the possibility of vote rigging. She was also the editor of the PPP newspaper ''Mirror'' from 1973 to 1997. Jagan was elected to Parliament in 1973 and was re-elected in 1980, 1985, and 1992, eventually becoming the longest-serving member of Parliament (46 years). Cheddi Jagan was elected as President of Guyana in 1992, and Janet Jagan became First Lady. She represented Guyana at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

for three months in 1993, temporarily replacing

Rudy Insanally Samuel Rudolph "Rudy" Insanally (born 23 January 1936)
, Office of the President of Guyana, 9 September 2006. is a Guyanese ...

when the latter was President of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

. After Cheddi Jagan's death, Janet Jagan was sworn in as Prime Minister as well as First Vice President on March 17, 1997. Jagan was the presidential candidate of the PPP in the December 1997 election. The PPP won the election, making Jagan the first female President of

, as well as the country's first Jewish and first U.S.-born leader. She was also the fourth woman elected in her own right as chief executive of a country in the Western Hemisphere, after

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (; born 15 April 1930) is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the world's first woman who was democratically elected as president. With a presidency of exactl ...

of Iceland,

Eugenia Charles Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, (15 May 1919 – 6 September 2005) was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. The first female lawyer in Dominica, she was Dominica's first, and to date only, fe ...

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

and

Violeta Chamorro Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (; 18 October 1929) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, as of 2022, only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua. Born into ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

. She was named a Freedom hero by

The My Hero Project The My Hero Project is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization established in 1995 by philanthropist Karen Pritzker, Jeanne Meyers and Rita Stern Milch that promotes the sharing of positive role models from around the world for the online digital storyt ...

Resignation and death

On July 1, 1999, after Jagan returned from the European-Latin American summit in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, she was admitted to St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in the capital, Georgetown, due to chest pains and exhaustion. She was treated for a heart condition and released from the hospital on July 3. Later in the month, she underwent tests regarding her heart condition at the Akron City Hospital in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

; she was discharged on July 23. Returning to Guyana, she received heart medication and was told that bypass surgery was not necessary. Jagan announced on August 8, 1999, that she was resigning as President because her health meant that she was no longer capable of "vigorous, strong leadership"; she said that Finance Minister

Bharrat Jagdeo Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is a Guyanese politician who has been serving as Vice President of Guyana since 2020, in the administration of President Irfaan Ali. He had previously also held the office from 1997 until 1999, during the pr ...

would be her successor. Jagdeo was sworn in as President on August 11. Despite her resignation, Jagan remained active in the PPP. At the PPP's 29th Congress, Jagan had received the second highest number of votes (671) in the election to the party's Central Committee,Press release on Central Committee election
August 3, 2008.
, ''Guyana Times'', 13 August 2008. held on August 2, 2008. She was then elected to the PPP Executive Committee,
PPP press statement, August 12, 2008. in addition to being elected as editor of the PPP paper ''Thunder'', on August 12, 2008. Jagan later left Guyana for

Maracaibo ) , motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal") , anthem = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_alt = ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

for treatment. She later went to

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

for additional treatment. Janet Jagan died of an abdominal aneurysm on March 28, 2009, in Georgetown. Her body was cremated on March 31, 2009 in Guyana.

Writings

Janet Jagan was long involved with the literary and cultural life of Guyana. She published early poems by

Martin Carter Martin Wylde Carter (7 June 1927 – 13 December 1997) was a Guyanese poet and political activist. Widely regarded as the greatest Guyanese poet, and one of the most important poets of the Caribbean region, Carter is best known for his p ...

in ''Thunder'' (which she edited) and supported the publication of early Carter collections such as ''The Hill of Fire Glows Red''. She strongly believed that Guyanese children needed books which reflected their own realities. In 1993,

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. It was founded after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new bo ...

published her ''When Grandpa Cheddi was a Boy and Other Stories'', followed by ''Patricia, the Baby Manatee'' (1995), ''Anastasia the Ant-Eater'' (1997) and ''The Dog Who Loved Flowers''.International Who's Who of Women

References

External links

Remembering Janet Jagan
at Cheddi Jagan Research Centre

(archived) * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Jagan, Janet 1920 births 2009 deaths 20th-century women rulers Presidents of Guyana Prime Ministers of Guyana Vice presidents of Guyana First Ladies of Guyana People's Progressive Party (Guyana) politicians Women presidents Women prime ministers Women government ministers of Guyana Women vice presidents Guyanese women in politics Guyanese women writers Jewish prime ministers Jewish American politicians Jewish women politicians Jewish presidents Guyanese Jews Jewish socialists Politicians from Chicago American emigrants to Guyana Former United States citizens American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Guyanese people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Guyanese people of Romanian descent Recipients of the Order of Excellence of Guyana Female heads of state Female heads of government Health ministers of Guyana Housing ministers of Guyana Interior ministers of Guyana Labour ministers of Guyana