Bahamas: History made as women to serve as House speaker and President of the Senate

History has been made in the Bahamas. Women are presiding over both Houses of Parliament simultaneously.

Bamboo Town member of parliament (MP), Patricia Deveaux was elected as speaker of the House of Assembly while Senator J. Lashell Adderley was appointed as president of the Senate.

During the opening session of the Senate, Adderley remarked on the historic occasion.
“This is the first time in the history of our Commonwealth that two women have sat simultaneously as speaker of the House and president of the Senate,” Adderley said.

“Indeed this is a seminal moment in our country and, again, it is noteworthy that perhaps during the most challenging times since independence, we have turned to two women to keep order and to maintain order and transparency in our system of democracy.”

Adderley said she walks in the footsteps of tenacious Bahamian men and sits on the shoulders of women from the suffragette movement, including Dame Doris Johnson, the first female Senate president.

Deveaux was elected as the 55th speaker of the House. She is the second woman to serve as speaker of the House of Assembly.

The first female speaker of The Bahamas House of Assembly was Italia Johnson who served in that position from April 9, 1997 to September 2, 2002.