Women in the Caribbean

Bronze Woman, a statue in Stockwell Memorial Gardens in the London Borough of Lambeth. It was designed by Ian Walters and completed, following his death, by Aleix Barbat. It was inspired by a poem written by local resident Cecile Nobrega and honors women of the Caribbean community. It was unveiled in October 2008.

Women in the Caribbean are women who were born in, who live in, or are from the region of the Caribbean in the Americas. This group of women in the region of North America include women from Anguilla (British overseas territory), Antigua and Barbuda (Constitutional monarchy), Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Bahamas (Constitutional monarchy), Barbados (Constitutional monarchy), Bonaire (special municipality of the Netherlands), the British Virgin Islands (British overseas territory), the Cayman Islands (British overseas territory), Cuba (Republic), Curaçao (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Dominica (Republic), Dominican Republic, Grenada (Constitutional monarchy), Guadeloupe (overseas department of France) including Îles des Saintes (Les Saintes), Marie-Galante, and la Désirade, Guyana (Republic), Haiti (Republic), Jamaica (Constitutional monarchy), Martinique (overseas department of France), Montserrat (British overseas territory), Puerto Rico (commonwealth of the United States), Saba (special municipality of the Netherlands), Saint Barthélemy (overseas collectivity of France), Saint Kitts and Nevis (Constitutional monarchy), Saint Lucia (Constitutional monarchy), Saint Martin (overseas collectivity of France), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Constitutional monarchy), Sint Eustatius (special municipality of the Netherlands), Sint Maarten (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Suriname (Republic), Trinidad and Tobago (Republic), the Turks and Caicos Islands (British overseas territory), and the United States Virgin Islands (territory of the United States).

Historically, Caribbean women have been significant contributors to the econonomy and the "domestic sphere" of the Caribbean region since the time of slavery, during the time of "free labor forces" in the late 19th and 20th centuries, as well as during the time of "contemporary politics" and economics. Their position and status may vary "among Caribbean societies", cultural groups, and geographical locations, that have different language backgrounds which include English-, Spanish-, and French-speaking communities in the West Indies.

Constitutional monarchies

Antigua and Barbuda

Main article: Women in Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Main article: Women in the Bahamas

Barbados

Main article: Women in Barbados

Grenada

Main article: Women in Grenada

Jamaica

Main article: Women in Jamaica

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Main article: Women in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Main article: Women in Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Main article: Women in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Republics

Cuba

Main article: Women in Cuba

In Cuba, women have equal constitutional rights as men in the economic, political, cultural and social fields, as well as in the family. According to article 44 of the Cuban Constitution, the state guarantees women the same opportunities and possibilities as men, in order to achieve woman’s full participation in the development of the country. Women hold 48.9% of the parliamentary seats in the Cuban National Assembly ranking sixth of 162 countries on issues of female participation in political life. [1] There has been only one candidate per seat and the National Candidacy Commission decides the persons.

Dominica

Main article: Women in Dominica

Dominican Republic

Main article: Women in the Dominican Republic

Women in the Dominican Republic are women who live in or are from the Dominican Republic. Their character has been defined by their history, culture, tradition and experience. Constitutionally, the modern-day women of the Dominican Republic are equal to men in terms of rights and property ownership. Culturally, the women of the Dominican Republic have an attitude that is known as machista behavior, where women understood and to a certain degree accepted the machismo nature of Dominican Republic men. By tradition, Dominican Republic women are expected to be submissive housewives, whose role in the household include child bearing and rearing, taking care of and supporting their husbands, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and sewing.

Guyana

Main article: Women in Guyana

Women in Guyana are South American women who lives in or are from Guyana. In general, Guyanese women plays significant roles in modern-day Guyanese society as house-workers, farmers, market vendors, teachers, nurses, civil servants, and clerks. A few women of Guyana have become senior position holders in the Government of Guyana; there had even been one Guyanese who took the role as the President of Guyana. Education-wise, women in Guyana have outperformed male Guyanese in regional examinations. There are currently more women in Guyana who attend education in universities.

Haiti

Main article: Women in Haiti

Women in Haiti have equal constitutional rights as men in the economic, political, cultural and social fields, as well as in the family.

However, the reality in Haiti is quite far from the law: "political, economic and social features of Haiti negatively affect most Haitians, but Haitian women experience additional barriers to the full enjoyment of their basic rights due to predominant social beliefs that they are inferior to men and a historical pattern of discrimination and violence against them based on their sex. Discrimination against women is a structural feature in Haitian society and culture that has subsisted throughout its history, both in times of peace and unrest."

Suriname

Main article: Women in Suriname

Women in Suriname are women who were born in, live in, or are from Suriname. Surinamese women may be ethnically East Indian (Hindostani), Mixed, Creole/Afro-Surinamese, Javanese, Maroon, Amerindian, or of other ancestry. Many women of Suriname work in the informal sector and in subsistence agriculture. Surinamese women have been described as the "emotional and economic center" of the household (see matrifocality) particularly in Creole family groups. However in traditionally patriarchal East Indian family groups, they have been described to act as subordinates; expected to obey cultural norms such as not to practice "living together" with a partner "without being married" first and that the bride should maintain her virginity until consummation after marriage. In Caribbean family groups, the leader of the household is normally the woman; it may be acceptable for women to have children from different partners, while others "practice serial monogamy".

Trinidad and Tobago

Main article: Women in Trinidad and Tobago

Women in Trinidad and Tobago are women who were born in, who live in, or are from Trinidad and Tobago. Depending from which island the women came from, the women of Trinidad and Tobago may also be called Trinidadian women or Tobagonian women. Some women in Trinidad and Tobago now excel in occupations such as being microenterprise owners, "lawyers, judges, politicians, civil servants, journalists, and calypsonians". Other women still dominate the fields of "domestic service, sales, and some light manufacturing".

Women of Afro-Trinidadian mix commonly become "heads of households", thus with acquired "autonomy and power". By participating in Trinidad and Tobago's version of the Carnival, Trinidadian and Tobagonian women demonstrate their "assertive sexuality". Some of them have also been active in so-called Afro-Christian sects and in running the "sou-sou informal rotating credit associations".

Dependency territories

Britain

Anguilla

Main article: Women in Anguilla

British Virgin Islands

Main article: Women in the British Virgin Islands

Women in the British Virgin Islands are women who were born in, who live in, and are from the British Virgin Islands, a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean. According to Countries and Their Culture, women of the British Virgin Islands are characteristically with "strong independent and entrepreneurial spirit".

Cayman Islands

Main article: Women in the Cayman Islands

Montserrat

Main article: Women in Montserrat

Turks and Caicos Islands

Main article: Women in the Turks and Caicos Islands

France

Guadeloupe

Main article: Women in Guadeloupe

Martinique

Main article: Women in Martinique

Saint Barthélemy

Main article: Women in Barthélemy

Saint Martin

Main article: Women in Saint Martin

Netherlands

Aruba

Main article: Women in Aruba

Bonaire

Main article: Women in Bonaire

Curaçao

Main article: Women in Curaçao

Saba

Main article: Women in Saba

Sint Eustatius

Main article: Women in Sint Eustatius

Sint Maarten

Main article: Women in Sint Maarten

United States

Puerto Rico

Main article: Women in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican women are women who live in and are from Puerto Rico, an island territory of the United States. They became citizens of the U.S.A. in 1917. Before that year - in 1898 - women form Puerto Rico were already active participants in the labor movement and agricultural economy in the island. During the period of industrialization, Puerto Rican women took jobs in the so-called "needle industry", working as seamstresses in garment factories.

United States Virgin Islands

Main article: Women in the United States Virgin Islands

Women in the United States Virgin Islands are women who were born in, who live in, and are from the Virgin Islands of the United States, a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States, and is composed of the islands of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. According to Countries and Their Culture, the women of the U.S. Virgin Islands are participating increasingly in the fields of economics, business, and politics.

See also

• Women in the Americas

Further reading

• WOMEN IN THE CARIBBEAN PROJECT: An Overview, JSTOR.org
• Massiah, Joycelin. MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE: INDICATORS FOR PLANNING FOR WOMEN IN CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT, Prepared for Unesco
• Massiah, Joycelin (editor). Women and the Family. Women in the Caribbean Project, Volume 2., Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies, P.O. Box 64, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1982, pp. 182.
• Massiah, Joycelin (editor). Women and Education. Women in the Caribbean Project, Volume 5., 1982, pp. 96.
• Bolles, A. Lynn. Claiming Their Rightful Position: Women Trade Union Leaders of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Working Papers No. 13, 1992 Lecture Series, Discovering the Americas, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland, College Park, 1992, 34 pp.
• Bush, Barbara. A Classic Study of the History of Caribbean Women, a review of Lucille Mathurin Mair's A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica, 1655-1844. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2006. 496 pp., ISBN 978-976-640-166-5 (cloth); ISBN 978-976-640-178-8 (paper).
• RECONSTRUCTING BLACK WOMEN'S HISTORY IN THE CARIBBEAN, JSTOR.org
• Shepherd, Verene A., Bridget Brereton, and Barbara Evelyn Bailey. Engendering History: Caribbean Women in Historical Perspective
• Morrissey, Marietta. A Review of Women and Change in the Caribbean, a work edited by Janet H. Momsen. Kingston: Ian Randle; Bloomington: Indiana University Press; London: Currey, 1993. x, 320 pp.