International Women's Rights Day: Mauritian Women Breaking into Male-Dominated Professions
On International Women's Rights Day, celebrated on Sunday, March 8, we spotlight Mauritian women who are making their mark in traditionally male-dominated fields. Mechanics, bus and train drivers, construction workers... Their courage and determination inspire and illustrate the progress toward equality.
The Audacity to Believe
In the 1970s, in Triolet, Jyoti Jeetun was born into a modest family: her father was a bus driver and a small cane farmer, her mother a homemaker, and they spoke Bhojpuri at home. At a time when girls often stayed home or married young, her father decided she would go to school.
In 1977, free education was a seismic shift for girls in villages. "I benefited from this public investment in education, but I had to fight at every step," says the Minister of Financial Services and Economic Planning.
Married and a mother of two, she never stops. She worked as a civil servant, then as a journalist, director of SIT, founding president of a bank, and member of several boards. She pursued her university and professional studies simultaneously, in a methodical and determined ascent.
In 2005, she moved to the UK and started from scratch: new city, new life, new challenge. Recruiters told her her CV was too impressive. She joined major investment banks in the City of London.
Meanwhile, Jyoti Jeetun obtained her PhD in strategy and finance from the prestigious Warwick Business School while working and teaching at the university. Then she moved to Brussels, joining the CDE, the EU/ACP institution dedicated to development. Her international experience forged a rare vision: understanding the world while keeping Mauritius at the center of her ambitions.
In 2016, she returned home to become CEO of the Mont Choisy group. Under her leadership, the family agricultural business transformed into a major integrated development project in the north. "Think big and far. Creating opportunities is what drives me. Transforming what exists into something greater," she confides.
She moves forward, despite her worries. "We export our best minds, our future leaders. Education has given them wings. They have used them to flee to countries that offer more opportunities," laments the Minister. What haunts her? The loss of benchmarks, values, discipline, ethics, integrity, and quality work. For her, the population needs to rediscover the taste for success, entrepreneurship, and becoming a progressive society.
Her diagnosis is clear: "We are not only competing with the region but with the world, and in this race, the government, businesses, and society must rise to the challenge, together." This realization pushes her toward a public career. "I watched all this from the private sector until the day I understood: to truly act, you must be active, be involved," she shares.
Today, as Minister of Financial Services and Economic Planning, she leads Vision 2050, whose credibility will depend on execution, concrete actions, not promises.
Has she succeeded in her political transition? Jyoti Jeetun does not shy away from the question. "I am not yet a politician. Perhaps I never will be. I am a public figure who wants to do something for my country. I want to do things differently, think differently, but people are not used to that," she says.
From Triolet to the City of London, from Brussels to the Mauritian private sector, each step has forged this conviction: change is possible if one dares. "I refuse to let my journey remain the exception. Other girls should be able to succeed without fighting as hard. Nothing is impossible if you have conviction and work hard," she asserts.
Jyoti Jeetun is a multifaceted woman: grounded, honest, resilient, whose authority comes from discipline and strength resonates without ever shouting. She creates where there was nothing, says no when necessary, and dismantles the false so that the true can be born, emerging from each trial even more determined. Jyoti Jeetun has the audacity to believe that a country can progress and the conviction that no one does it alone. She is ready to play her part.