FRANCINE CHARLES has gone through her share of transitions. In many ways much of the success that she has achieved over the years as a television journalist working in the region and then Barbados has been due to her ability to change and adapt to opportunities and changes.
Her flexibility allowed her to go from working at the Trinidad Express for a brief stint to working at TV-6, which would have been the launching point for her career in television.
“I had a desire to do more regional work then, so I made a proposal to go to Cuba,” Francine said. “Within a few weeks the Caribbean Broadcasting Union wanted to take a team into Cuba and I went with them. When I came back, an opportunity came up for Caribscope and I took it.”
For the next nine years, Francine charted a course in television news. Naturally, her personal life went through its own changes as well, as she got married to Joseph Charles, who she describes as her best friend, and started her family.
“I left full-time television in 2002,” she said. “When I left, the company was downsizing and it was perfect because it helped me transition into motherhood because I was solely reading the news. It worked out because I was home during the day with my girls and then I would go in to read the news.”
Like most career women who become mothers, Francine found herself changing with the growing demands of motherhood. She was dealing with her own internal conflicts about the need and desire to work, coupled with the desire to be a good mother.
“I had no idea what having children did to you, in terms of how it changes you,” Francine said. “By the time I had my children I realized I needed to do things differently. My heart changed, and no longer did I put my career first; my family now came first. My husband and I decided it was more important to see the kids through those early stages until they were ready to go to school.”
Stepping away from the adrenalin rush that a journalism career brings became easy because Francine had stepped into a new phase in her life and had made her own inroads professionally.
“I got married at 29 and I believe God worked that out because I was able to do so much,” she said. “I travelled to Norway, Namibia in Africa, had covered the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta along with travelling the region, so stepping back was an easy transition. I’m glad it worked out that way.”
As her children went from babies to toddlers, Francine felt she could ease back into the workforce.
“When my kids turned three, I sent my CV to Ernst & Young and they told me they had this project, Cricket World Cup, but I was only interested in part-time work,” Francine said.
For the first year, Francine was able to consult part-time for the World Cup, but that changed the following year, and she was fully immersed in this mammoth undertaking.
“World Cup was bigger than anyone understood,” she said. “I became the communications person dealing with the media, so it was a different role for me to play and I learnt so much. A lot of it was learning on the job.”
What Francine took away from that experience was a thorough understanding of both worlds, media and the public relations/marketing end. Though the job did demand a great deal of her time, she credits her husband along with Auntie Marlene for stepping in and helping to juggle the demands of their children when she was unable to.
After World Cup, Francine stepped back into her role as a consultant and into juggling the demands of her children, family and her church, which she is very involved in.
“I love doing it all . . . . I love being part of my church community and working and stewarding two lives,” she said.
But as a woman who has battled with the pulls of a demanding career and family, Francine is very aware that women cannot have it all.
“I noticed very early in the game that women have to make decisions,” Francine said. “For me the Fran part is definitely not high up on the pole. When I had my kids, my husband and I made some adjustments so that I could stay home with the kids. I think as women we have to change our definition on what having it all means.”
Francine is aware that women struggle with the tension and guilt that come with making that shift, and she acknowledges that there is no carbon copy way to do it because every woman is different as is their situation. But she knows that many women struggle internally with those decisions.
In fact, Francine is so aware of the challenges of parenting that she is doing a television series called My Child And I, which she hopes will air in the region by the end of the year.
“This series is to help parents by listening to other parents share stories on how we can raise children more effectively,” she said.
For Francine, in many ways this project is the culmination of the journey she started back in 2003 prior to Cricket World Cup.
“I always wanted to see my media doing something helpful and constructive,” she said of the show and her journey. “I did not plan this life at all. This has been such a fantastic experience. I just believe it was God directing and ordering my life.”