Lucille Mathurin Mair, (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Walrond; 192428 January 2009), was a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n ambassador, author, diplomat and gender specialist. In March 1982, she became the first female Under Secretary General of 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 ...

. She died aged 85 in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, Jamaica.

Education and career

Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1924, Mair obtained a first degree in history at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

. In 1974 she obtained a PhD in history from the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

with a dissertation entitled "A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655–1844", about which

Verene Shepherd Verene Albertha Shepherd (née Lazarus; born 1951) is a Jamaican academic who is a professor of social history at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, Mona. She is the director of the university's Institute for Gender and Developm ...

has said: "Over a period of three decades, it became the most sought-after unpublished work among students and scholars of Caribbean history and culture." Mair served as Assistant Secretary-General in the office of the United Nations Secretary in 1979, from which she performed the role of Secretary-General for the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women held in 1980 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. From 1981 to 1982, she served as special advisor to the

United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

(UNICEF) on Women's Development at the level of assistant secretary general. She then went on to serve as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Palestine from 1982 to 1987. In March 1982, Mair was appointed as Under Secretary General of the United Nations, becoming the first woman ever to hold such a title. She was the Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the

from 1992 to 1995 and was also Ambassador to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Personal life and death

Mair was a widow who single-handedly raised three children. She remarried but filed for divorce. Mair died on 28 January 2009 at her home in

, aged 85. United Nations Secretary General

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...

expressed his condolences through a statement, praising Mair as a "lifelong champion of the rights of women".

Recognition

The International

Institute of Social Studies The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam is an independent and international graduate school of policy-oriented critical social science. ISS was established in 1952 by Dutch universities and the Neth ...

(ISS) awarded its honorary doctorate to Lucille Mair in 1988. In 1996, she received CARICOM's Triennial Award for Women. On 25 October 2016, Mair was posthumously inducted into the Wolmer's Hall of Fame.

References

External links

"Women's History Month: Lucille Mathurin-Mair (née Waldrond), 1924–2009: Pioneer of Caribbean Women's History"
Women's History Network, 21 March 3011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mair, Lucille M. 1924 births 2009 deaths Gender studies academics Ambassadors of Jamaica to Cuba Permanent Representatives of Jamaica to the United Nations Jamaican women ambassadors Jamaican officials of the United Nations Jamaican expatriates in the United Kingdom