Women in Bahamian History: Doris Johnson

“In the Caribbean and developing nations, our human resources are greater - greater perhaps than our material resources.”

-Dame Dr. Doris L. Johnson

Going down in history for achieving several firsts Dame Doris Johnson will always be remembered as the first woman to run for the legislature; the first woman to be appointed to the Senate; the first woman to be made a Minister of Government; the first woman to be the Leader of the Senate and the first woman to be elected as president of the Senate. Doris Johnson was born in Nassau in June 1919, the third in a family of ten children.

She distinguished herself academically and became an outstanding educator. Which was a driving force to her political forefront as a woman during the era when women were disenfranchised. For seventeen years she taught in the public education system, until her desire to further her education heightened. She entered Virginia Union University in Richmond, VA., where she majored in English and Education, securing a Bachelor of Arts degree. One year was spent at McGill University’s MacDonald College of Education and another at Ontario College of Education at the University of Toronto, where she obtained a Master of Education degree in Administration and Supervision. She later obtained a Doctor of Education degree from New York University. After returning to the Bahamas from her studies the Women’s Suffrage Movement embraced her passion and oratorical skills, and she mobilized the movement into a fighting force. Dr. Johnson led a demonstration to Parliament and gave a pivotal speech to members of the House of Assemble on the moral right of women to vote. She was appointed the first woman Senator in the history of the country, and the following year she was made leader of the government in the Senate and a Minister without Portfolio. She was later named Minister of Transport.

She was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Dame Johnson was predeceased by her husband, Carl Johnson, and had one son, Gerald. She died on June 21, 1983.