Before women in the Caribbean were called “CFO,” “Partner,” or “President,” many were already the financial leaders of their homes, stretching budgets, raising children, mentoring others, making the impossible work, and keeping families and communities afloat. On International Women’s Day, which we celebrate on 8 March, we honour and recognise that full picture: the mother, nurturer and teacher…and the strategist who reads the numbers, manages risk, and builds sustainable businesses.
Our region has produced women who have broken ceilings in the profession and opened doors for the next generation. Trinidad & Tobago’s Angela Lee Loy, FCCA, CA made history as the first female President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago (ICATT) and later became the first female President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC), showing what Caribbean professional leadership can look like. In public financial management, Petal-Ann Roberts became the first female Secretary of Finance in the Tobago House of Assembly – another signal that women’s financial leadership is shaping institutions as well as enterprises.
Across our region, women have also broken national and institutional ceilings, paving the way for others to follow. CARICOM honours Dame Mary Eugenia Charles as the Caribbean’s first female Prime Minister, a trailblazer whose leadership expanded what young women could only imagine. Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has become one of the Caribbean’s most recognisable voices on economic resilience and financial reform, showing how leadership can be both values-driven and numbers-literate.
Closer to home, Trinidad & Tobago has seen historic milestones with women at the very highest levels of national leadership, including the country’s first female Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and first female President Paula Mae Weekes, reinforcing that leadership here is not an exception, it is part of our story.
For SMEs, this matters because financial leadership is growth leadership. When women lead with financial clarity, businesses scale with less stress and more resilience.
At Moore TT, we’re proud to be strengthened by women in leadership and support roles who bring the energy and rigor that sustainability requires. We’ll feature some of these women in a later piece.
Clarion call: To every young woman at Moore TT, our clients, partners and associates – we urge you to continue carrying the flame of womanhood. Lead boldly. Build what lasts.