Dame Pamela Gordon-Banks, Bermuda’s first woman Premier, will be honoured tonight at a New York gala celebrating female empowerment.

The Girl Be Heard nonprofit theatre company is hosting the event at the Howl at the Moon bar in The Bronx, featuring cocktails, dancing and a live performance.

The company, which aims to lift up young women “to become brave, confident, socially conscious leaders”, paid tribute to Bermuda’s leader from 1997 to 1998 on its website.

“Dame Pamela Gordon-Banks has broken countless ceilings, educationally and economically. She thinks globally and acts locally,” it said, adding that the former Premier and her husband Andrew Banks have been instrumental in forging a cultural exchange programme between Girl Be Heard and the Bermudian community.

Also being honoured at the ‘Gotta Love Girls’ gala will be Dr Shirley Cason Reed.

The international president of the Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr Reed has championed human rights in the US and Africa for more than 30 years.