Since 2018, the honorable Mia Mottley has served as the Prime Minister of Barbados, and she has led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008. She is the first woman ever to hold either position. Time magazine put her on their cover, named her one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2022, and wrote, “[b]old, fearless, and possessing a great intellect and wit, the Prime Minister is a brilliant politician who knows how to shake things up.”
Mottley received her education from Merrivale Preparatory School, the United Nations International School, and Queen's College (Barbados). She is also an attorney with a degree from the London School of Economics, specializing in advocacy.
Mottley has been politically active in Barbados for more than three decades. She was one of two Opposition Senators in the Senate of Barbados, where she was Shadow Minister of Culture and Community Development from 1991 to 1994. Between 1994 and 2008, she served in the Cabinet of three successive Administrations: first, as Minister of Education and Culture, then as Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, and then as Minister of Economic Affairs. She was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in 2003.
In 2013, the BLP parliamentary group elected Mottley as Leader of the Opposition. She replaced former Prime Minister Owen Arthur and was the first woman to hold the position. In the General Elections on May 24, 2018, she led the BLP to a resounding victory, winning all 30 seats in the House of Assembly by the most significant margin ever seen in the country's electoral history. She also currently holds the portfolios of Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Investment.
Mottley is an outspoken advocate for climate change. In 2021, going off script, she admonished the United Nations General Assembly, telling them to work more diligently to limit the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award (Champions of the Earth) from the UN Environment Programme that same year.
In November 2022, Mottley delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. She was showered with praise from Graça Simbine Machel Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s widow, who called her brilliant and urged for more female leadership to mobilize an activist movement for change.
“We need many more Mias, you need to stand up and be counted,” Mandela said.