Through the Political Glass Ceiling - Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female, Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Through the Political Glass Ceiling captures the build-up to the election of Kamla Persad-Bissessar as the first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago with historical and socio-cultural analyses and contexts that examine the role of gender, culture and geography in the politics of this developing country. This book presents the paradox of politics and society in Trinidad and Tobago in the context of the contest for leadership between the country's longest standing political entity, the People's National Movement, and the first female leader of a political party, United National Congress' Kamla Persad-Bissessar. It sets selected speeches of Persad-Bissessar against the backdrop of multiculturalism, gender, and geo-politics with refreshing insights into the interplay between minority and dominant political ideologies as post-Independent T&T struggles for articulation and definition of a truly encompassing national identity. Ranging through the country's experiences with political parties under Dr Eric Williams, through the period of the National Alliance for Reconstruction and ANR Robinson to the period of voting deadlock at the turn of the century involving Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning, it presents the situations and contexts of Persad-Bissessar's controversial political career. In doing so, it provides roadmaps of Persad-Bissessar's journey to T&T's highest political offices, through to the defining moments of the May 2010 snap election. It is compiled with introduction and contexts by Dr Kris Rampersad, a journalist, researcher, educator, writer and publisher who has been has exploring the diversity of Caribbean society and cultures for some 20 years.