Isabel Ursula Teshea

Isabel Ursula Cadogan was born on 24 July 1911 in San Fernando, on the island of Trinidad, in the British West Indies's colony of Trinidad and Tobago, to Maude and Thomas Cadogan. Her father was a tailor and soon after her birth, the family moved to Princes Town, where Cadogan grew up and attended the Government Primary School. Having little access to secondary education, common in the country at that time, Cadogan continued her education under the pupil-teacher system. While working as a student teacher, she began organizing student clubs arranging concerts, dances and speaking events. She founded a boys’ club in Princes Town and worked on numerous charitable events to assist the underprivileged in her local parish, through St. Stephen's Anglican Church.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}

Upon completing her schooling, Cadogan began working at the dairy of the Petit Morne Sugar Estate in Sainte Madeleine, working her way up to a clerk in the plantation sugar office. After some years, she moved to Port of Spain and began working at Perreira's and Company, as an inventory control clerk. She enrolled in courses at the University of Puerto Rico{{sfn|Matthews|2016}} and then on 24 September 1938, married George McGregor Teshea.{{sfn|The Gleaner|1959|p=23}} Teshea joined the Teachers' Education and Cultural Association (TECA), the People's Education Movement (PEM) and the Federation of Women's Institutes (FWI), becoming politically active. These women's organizations were focused on education and providing social services throughout the island. In 1955, during the push for decolonization, the PEM was reorganized as the women's arm of the People's National Movement. Going door-to-door Teshea and other women campaigned and organized fundraisers for candidates. She also worked as a researcher, reading transcripts of speeches of British Parliamentarians, known as the Hansard, to assist in the writing of speeches.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}

Teshea had developed a network of ties with various village councils and became a valuable asset to Eric Williams in the formation of the People's National Movement (PNM).{{sfn|Palmer|Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture|2006|p=2182}} Teshea was appointed as one of the vice chairs of the party in 1956{{sfn|St. Pierre|2015|p=111}} and simultaneously became chair of the PNM Women's League, as well as the FWI.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}} Her marriage dissolved in 1959,{{sfn|The Gleaner|1959|p=23}} and Teshea devoted more time to politics, coming to national prominence.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}} When Trinidad and Tobago gained their independence and elections were held in 1961, Teshea, frustrated that women's roles had theretofore been limited to supporting male candidates,{{sfn|Gordon|1988|p=497}} ran for a seat in the Port of Spain East District, winning by more than 7,000 votes.{{sfn|The Gleaner|1961|p=2}} Her election to the newly established House of Representatives, made her the first woman to serve in that capacity in Trinidad. Appointed as parliamentary secretary, she served in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development. The department maintained responsibility for ensuring for health, water, and sanitation needs of the island.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}

In 1963, Williams, who was Prime Minister, reorganized his cabinet, making Teshea the Minister of Health and Housing, the first woman to serve as a Minister in the country.{{sfn|The Gleaner|1963|p=1}} During her tenure she put a number of initiatives in place to improve educational opportunity; provide cultural, home economic and moral training; and promote racial harmony between the Afro- and Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian communities.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}} She toured the major African states with Prime Minister Williams in 1964 and was featured in a women's magazine in Senegal during the trip.{{sfn|AWA|1964|p=11}} Two years later, when her Ministry was split into the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Housing, Teshea was assigned responsibility for both portfolios, which she served until 1970.{{sfn|Palmer|Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture|2006|p=2182}} She shared responsibilities in the Ministry of Health with Dr. Leonard Comissiong, the island's chief medical officer.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}

Teshea was appointed as ambassador to Ethiopia in 1969,{{sfn|The Gleaner|1969|p=27}} the first woman ambassador from Trinidad.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}{{sfn|The Star|1970|p=9}} Zambia was added to her ambassadorial duties and she served the posts until 1971, when she returned to Trinidad and was appointed as Minister of Education and Culture, serving in that office through 1975. In 1974, she was appointed as high commissioner of Guyana and retained that post, though made Trinidad and Tobago's ambassador to Senegal in 1975.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}} While serving in Guyana, she participated in the regional negotiations which led to the establishment of Caricom.{{sfn|Palmer|Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture|2006|p=2182}} She served through 1976 in Senegal and through 1977 in Guayana before retiring from public life.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}

Teshea died 14 April 1981 and was posthumously awarded four months after her death Trinidad's highest honor, the Trinity Cross.{{sfn|Matthews|2016}} Teshea did not consider herself a woman's rights activist, though she often worked to improve the status of women. She described herself as "not a feminist by definition, but a believer in …'human rights'".{{sfn|Matthews|2016}}

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• {{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Gloria |title=Trinidad and Tobago: The Independence Experience, 1962–1987|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wToYAAAAYAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies|location=St Augustine, Trinidad|isbn=978-976-618-005-8}}
• {{cite book|last1=Matthews|first1=Gelien|editor1-last=Knight|editor1-first=Franklin W.|editor2-last=Gates, Jr|editor2-first=Henry Louis|title=Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0-199-93580-2|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199935796.001.0001/acref-9780199935796-e-2045?rskey=b9qnok&result=6|chapter=Teshea, Ursula Isabel (1911–1981), social worker, political activist, politician}}{{subscription required|via=[http://www.oxfordreference.com/ Oxford University Press]'s Reference Online}}
• {{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Colin A.|last2=Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture|title=Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: the Black experience in the Americas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70gUAQAAIAAJ|edition=2nd|volume=5|year=2006|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|location=Detroit, Michigan|isbn=978-0-02-865821-6}}
• {{cite book|last=St. Pierre|first=Maurice|title=Eric Williams and the Anticolonial Tradition: The Making of a Diasporan Intellectual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-PiqBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT111|year=2015|publisher=University of Virginia Press|location=Charlottesville, Virginia|isbn=978-0-8139-3685-7}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Star|1970}}|author=|title=Addis Ababa|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00072476/00234/9|access-date=5 February 2018|work=The Star|volume=10|issue=18|date=2 May 1970|location=Roseau, Dominica|page=9}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|1961}}|author=|title=Big Victory|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/susun-wilkinson-politics-clipping-dec-06-1961-429977/|access-date=5 February 2018|publisher=The Gleaner|date=19 December 1959|location=Kingston, Jamaica|page=2|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|1959}}|author=|title=Decree nisi for PNM Vice-President|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/susun-wilkinson-divorce-clipping-dec-19-1959-429956/|access-date=5 February 2018|publisher=The Gleaner|date=6 December 1961|location=Kingston, Jamaica|page=23|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|AWA|1964}}|author=|title=Madame Isabel Teshea Ministre de la Santé et de l'Habitat des Iles de Trinidad et Tobago: En visite au Senegal|journal=AWA: La revue de la femme noire|date=March 1964|issue=3|page=11|url=https://www.awamagazine.org/acr_posts/march-1964-page-11/|access-date=5 February 2018|trans-title=Mrs. Isabel Teshea Minister of Health and Housing of the Islands of Trinidad and Tobago: Visiting Senegal|publisher=Imprierie DIOP|location=Dakar, Senegal|language=French}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|1969}}|author=|title=Trinidad's new ambassador to Ethiopia|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/susun-wilkinson-politics-clipping-dec-23-1969-429975/|access-date=5 February 2018|publisher=The Gleaner|date=23 December 1969|location=Kingston, Jamaica|page=27|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Gleaner|1963}}|author=|title=Williams shuffles cabinet|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/susun-wilkinson-politics-clipping-may-18-1963-430003/|access-date=5 February 2018|publisher=The Gleaner|date=18 May 1963|location=Kingston, Jamaica|page=1|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Teshea, Isabel Ursula}}

Category:1911 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:People from San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago

Category:Caribbean people of African descent

Category:University of Puerto Rico alumni

Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago women politicians

Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago politicians

Category:Members of the House of Representatives (Trinidad and Tobago)

Category:People's National Movement politicians

Category:Trinidad and Tobago human rights activists