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Caribbean Civilization and Gender Justice – A Reflection

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Caribbean Civilization and Gender Justice – A Reflection

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Thursday 20th April, 2017.

The Caribbean Civilisation Course this semester provided a medium for the Caribbean Citizen to think critically about ways in which the historical conditions of colonialism, migration and exploitation have helped to carve out defined power relations that create the bases for Caribbean Identity. Analysis of the changes and developments in Caribbean society are usually looked at from economic, social and political standpoints. What FOUN1101 encouraged is the option to define West Indian development through different lenses. Gender in particular opened many doors in understanding the way that the structure of Patriarchy has dictated and continues to shape experiences of power among Caribbean men and women in a localized context. As part of the conversation on social development in the Caribbean, offering women spaces to be successful stakeholders of their own, National and Regional communities and to have their interests equitably represented are of utmost importance. In the same vein, Caribbean Men’s issues reflect many of the social issues surrounding historical forces that have constructed Caribbean masculinity.

When the scope is widened to include issues of female subordination and male domination in Caribbean society, there is heightened understanding of the intersectionality that exists. The religious, ethnic and cultural diversity of the region poses several challenges in treating with equity but simultaneously presents a channel through which the best forms of justice and fairness can be afforded to all. The idea of a Caribbean Civilisation allows one to reflect on the fact that these movements for gender justice help present solutions that directly tackle issues that are pertinent to the region without having to be borrowed from the West or the Global North. This can be evidenced by the prevalence of not only advocacy groups throughout the Caribbean’s history but the emergence of outstanding women who dared to break the status quo and Caribbean-specific empirical studies that support the push for Gender Justice in the Caribbean. The photograph below of women standing together at the recent Life in Leggings march is an image which represents this public and widespread movement for women's rights in the modern day.

Photo Below: Life in Leggings March in Barbados (Voice of Barbados)

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Caribbean Men’s Movements – Male Marginality and Male Marginalization

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Caribbean Men’s Movements – Male Marginality and Male Marginalization

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Wednesday 19th April, 2017

The movements surrounding Men’s issues in the Caribbean have assumed two separate characters from their inception in the 1970’s, one which was a rebuttal to the growing strength of the Caribbean Feminist movement and one which critically looked at masculinity and connotations of power, especially within the Afro-Caribbean family (Reddock, xiii-xiv). One of the first issues to come out of the growth of particularly Pro-Feminist Men’s Movements like Barry Chevannes’ Fathers Incorporated in Jamaica in the late 1980’s was the relationship between men and family.

Barrow avidly discussed marginality in terms of the ways in which Afro-Caribbean Masculinity removed them from being active social contributors within the family structure (342). This idea can be tied back to the concept of the Sexual Division of Labour, where men assumed the role of breadwinner and women that of domestic nurturer. This has played out in Caribbean society, for instance, in understanding the legal ramifications surrounding child custody cases in the legal system. One assumption attributes this to a privileging of women, but, after taking a closer look, it can be understood that because of the routine gendered assumption that women are meant for childcare and thus custody should be granted to them. The Single Fathers Association in Trinidad, for instance, argues for change based on the assumption of female privileging. Albeit an arguable stance, the endgame that they mean to achieve has become a very popular topic of Men’s Rights and Gender Justice in the Caribbean. Additionally, associations like these can be allies in solving issues of gender justice, such as domestic violence and crimes, as seen in the article below.

While Marginality is discussed in the context of the Caribbean Family, the term Marginalization contextualizes the issue of boy’s and men’s academic performances and involvement in the teaching profession in the Caribbean. Its theorist, Errol Miller (1986) puts forward the idea that men are marginalized in the education system by the privileging of girls over boys in schools and the feminization of the teaching profession. Although his evidence of male underachievement stands, Pro-Feminist scholars (Barriteau, Figueroa), argue that his justification ignores how pale privileging is mobilized in the education system to create the condition of male marginalization. In the modern context however, the work of these scholars remain imperative as male underachievement in academia is still seen as a prevalent Men’s issue in the region. The Pro-Feminist perspective puts the responsibility of fixing this issue not on women and their advancement but on Caribbean society at large which is responsible for the socialization of boys to associate education with a threat to Caribbean Masculinity.

Works Cited

1)      Barriteau, Eudine. “Requiem for the Male Marginalization Thesis: Death of a Non-Thesis in the Caribbean.” In Confronting Power, Theorizing Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in the Caribbean, Edited by E. Barriteau, UWI Press, 2003, 324-355.

2)      Barrow, Christine. “Caribbean Masculinity and Family: Revisiting ‘Marginality’ and ‘Reputation’.” In Caribbean Portraits: Essays on Gender Ideologies and Identities, Edited by C. Barrow, Ian Randle Publishers, 1998, 339-358.

3)      Figueroa, Mark. “Male Priveliging and Male Academic Performance in Jamaica.” In Interrogating Caribbean Masculinities: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses, Edited by R. Reddock, UWI Press, 2004, 137-166.

4)       Miller, Errol. “Marginalization of the Black Male: Insights from the Development of the Teaching Profession.” ISER, 1986.

5)      Reddock, Rhoda. “Introduction.” In Interrogating Caribbean Masculinities: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses, Edited by R. Reddock, UWI Press, 2004,xiii – xxxiv.

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Speaking to i95.5FM on Monday, Feeles is calling on the Government to address the issue in light of the gruesome murder-suicide of Premnath Ramkelewan, who stabbed his wife Aarika Bhim and attacked his three-year-old daughter who is presently in hospital in critical condition.

Feeles said just this morning another father called him out of frustration, threatening to kill his children and take his own life.

"They call me every day, up to this morning a father called me, frustrated, saying he was going to be evicted from his house and better (sic) he take everybody's life."

"We need to help these men and talk them down many times. Some of the police officers and outreach officers have at times gone to men and stopped them before they're about to commit murderous acts or suicidal acts."

Feeles says that there is a crisis brewing and the Government must intervene now in order to avoid further disasters.

"The Single Fathers Association made calls to the then-Prime Minister and I'm making the same call now to the new Prime Minister to treat with the issues that a lot of men have."

Feeles encouraged fathers, both single fathers and married fathers, to contact the Association for help as social workers and counsellors are available to provide help.

He said he is also asking for the Government to make resources available in order to provide help for these men.

Feeles said both children and parents need help in dealing with difficult social issues.

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Single Fathers' Assoc President: Fathers need help

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Speaking to i95.5FM on Monday, Feeles is calling on the Government to address the issue in light of the gruesome murder-suicide of Premnath Ramkelewan, who stabbed his wife Aarika Bhim and attacked his three-year-old daughter who is presently in hospital in critical condition.

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Recent Horrors – Domestic Abuse and Violence against Women

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Recent Horrors – Domestic Abuse and Violence against Women

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Tuesday 18th April, 2017

The history of domestic violence in the Caribbean region is elaborate and cannot be ignored when discussing issues of Women’s Human Rights and Gender Justice. As a matter of fact, the surge of recent domestic violence cases and murder incidents in Trinidad and Tobago is what prompted a closer look at the general theme of this exercise, Gender Justice and Women’s Experiences in the Caribbean. The news headlines in the past eight months or so, exemplified by the attached news article, speak to the horrors of domestic disputes gone totally wrong, resulting in heinous murders and revenge crimes. This has therefore become a heated topic of utmost importance in many Women’s advocacy and Human Rights groups across the nation and, by extension, the entirety of the West Indies.

On many occasions, the onus of the responsibility has been placed on the woman to escape such compromising situations, a feat that is definitely easier said than done. Most of the time, economic, psychological and emotional factors have to be considered when examining the practicality of such a response. However Pargass and Clarke state that in the Caribbean, this notion that domestic violence should be seen as a personal and private issue should be dispelled and it should be given adequate state interest as it reflects a violation of Human Rights (39-41). At the institutional level, there has been great discussion about what can be done, particularly with the support of local law enforcement. There are however other institutional factors persist in creating unsafe environments for Caribbean women concerning exposure to violence. This can include exposure of victim and perpetrator to violence in their childhood and substance abuse (Pargass and Clarke, 45).

In understanding its pertinence to the Caribbean community, domestic violence can not only be seen as a Women’s Issue but a societal and state issue. In an attempt to develop the region, the vision must span beyond infrastructural and economic development and consider the ways in which social development may make for safer women, healthier men, better families and more constructive communities. Interestingly enough and tied in to a previous log entry, there is collective interest and action being generated by Women’s Groups not just in Trinidad and Tobago but in the wider region, perhaps a very effective way to encourage integration to tackle pressing Caribbean issues such as domestic violence.

Works Cited

1)      Pargass, Gaietry and Roberta Clarke. “Violence against Women: A Human Rights Issue.” In Gender Equality in the Caribbean: Reality or Illusion, Edited by Tang Nain and Bailey, Ian Randle Publishers, 2003, 39-72.

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Domestic violence against women has reached "epidemic" levels in Trinidad and Tobago with more than 10,000 women seeking restraining orders every year.
Between the period of 1991 and 2014, more than 125,000 applications for protection orders were filed in the courts.
And in the last decade, the police have responded to more than 15,000 reports of domestic violence.
Many more cases go unreported. And many result in loss of life.
It is estimated that one in every three women in this country has been a victim of domestic or gender-based violence but less than two of every five cases are reported. In 2015 alone, the police responded to 1,613 reports of domestic violence. 1,233 of these reports were made by women.
These statistics were presented during an exhibition in commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women held on the Brian Lara Promenade yesterday.
The event was an initiative of the Office of the Prime Minister (Gender and Child Affairs).
These figures are unacceptably high and alarming, noted Director of the Gender Affairs Division Antoinette Jack-Martin.
She said the time has come for a concerted effort by all, including men, to end the scourge of gender-based violence.
She noted that men are also victims of domestic violence and she urged them to come forward and speak out.
"Do not be shamed into silence," she said.

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Domestic violence against women has reached "epidemic" levels in Trinidad and Tobago with more than 10,000 women seeking restraining orders every year.Between the period of 1991 and 2014, more than 125,000 applications for protection orders were filed in the courts.

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Today’s Issues – Horizontal and Vertical Segregation

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Today’s Issues – Horizontal and Vertical Segregation

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Tuesday 18th April, 2017.

The Women’s Movement has come a long way the Caribbean, particularly in terms of raising awareness to the complexities of gendered power relationships and the way they affect society at large. There are, however, still many issues that exist in moving towards equity. Some such issues include those in the fields of academia, employment, governance and politics in the Caribbean region.

The concept that gender is socially-constructed (qtd. in Leo-Rhynie, 156) is the entry-point to the discussion of several of the issues that still exist for the Women’s Movement today. This notion that masculinity and femininity assume certain roles in society are backed up socializing processes. Typical ideas of gender roles thence create a concept called the Sexual Division of Labour, which places women in occupations of caring and nurturing while placing men in mechanical and labour intensive spaces. What these constructs implicate for Caribbean societies is the uneven distribution of women and, by extension men, in particular fields of study and professional spaces. This continues trends of Androcentrism or male-centred approaches to research and work in fields of importance to Caribbean society.

Part and parcel of the sexual division of labour is the idea of the glass ceiling, a concept which connoted vertical segregation. This means that it there are invisible but very real barriers to women in professional environments that prevent them from reaching to the highest levels of leadership. Oftentimes, the bases for these practices are assumptions about women’s biological and emotional capacities to lead, notions directly related to the idea of gender roles. As much as this is an issue of Women’s Movements globally, the locality of this can be seen in terms of the gendered composition of present and past governments of the region. Even in spite of the fact that several countries in the Caribbean have had female heads of state, such as Portia Simpson Miller pictured below (Caribbean Elections, Women in Caribbean Politics), there is a lack of both equal representation of female government ministers and women’s issues on a politicized level. The way this shapes public policy is crucial to understanding the crux of the issues of true representation of social issues in the Caribbean region.

Works Cited

1)      Leo-Rhynie, Elsa. “Women and Development Studies: Moving From the Periphery.” In Gendered Realities: Essays in Caribbean Feminist Thought edited by P. Mohammed, UWI Press, 2002, 147-163.

2)      "Women in Caribbean Politics." Caribbean Elections - Learning Resources: Electorial Systems in the Caribbean. Knowledge Walk Institute, Web. Accessed 18 Apr. 2017.

Photo Below: Portia Simpson Miller, past Prime Minister of Jamaica (Caribbean Elections)

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Caribbean Women’s Movements in the Twentieth Century – The Work of Audrey Jeffers

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Caribbean Women’s Movements in the Twentieth Century – The Work of Audrey Jeffers

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Sunday 16th April, 2017.

One of the many triumphs of the Caribbean women’s movement in the twentieth century was led by Audrey Jeffers, pictured below. Jeffers, born in 1898, was an iconic figure, contributing a great deal to community-centred social development in Trinidad and the wider region (IGDS). She founded the Coterie of Social Workers in the year 1921, an organization that Rhoda Reddock refers to as, “By far the most important women’s organizations of this period,” (164). The Coterie of Social Workers mobilized black and coloured middle –class women to become involved in the development and advancement of working-class communities, with particular focus on women and girls’ welfare. Jeffers received many accolades throughout her life for her advocacy for education for working and middle class girls, social work and promotion of employment for middle class brown and black women.

The Coterie of Social Workers represented not only Audrey Jeffers’ achievements but the trend of twentieth century women’s movements. Many groups that advocated for women’s rights and gender justice at this time did so with the idea of charity in mind. Reaching out to working-class and socially and economically dispossessed communities was how many middle-class brown and black women of the region sought to keep active. In many cases, this was also guided by religious (particularly Christian) influence.

The contributions of welfare groups were imperative to shaping second wave feminist politics, guiding how women processed the understanding of equitable opportunities in education and employment. However, albeit beneficial, welfare advocacy like the Coterie of Social Workers still embraced the “Victorian housewife ideal,” (Reddock, 167) that seemed to advance certain way of being a woman above others. Middle Class and wealthy women who had access to greater resources had to set the standard for working-class women. This was unfortunately an imperfect situation, particularly considering that the working-class communities in the colonial Caribbean were so great in number. However, despite these challenges, the work of Audrey Jeffers and women like her were able to create a basis for social development that actively advocated for and involved women of the region. This has shaped the ways in which Caribbean feminist politics have both changed to adapt to nuances of Caribbean women’s experiences, as well as assumed a character of community centred development with focuses on practicalities like education and employment.

Works Cited

1)      “Audrey Jeffers." IGDS 20th Anniversary Conference, sta.uwi.edu/igds/20thanniversary/audreyjeffers.asp. Accessed dated 16th April, 2017.

2)      Reddock, Rhoda. “The Early Women’s Movement.” Women, Labour and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago: A History, edited by R. Reddock, Jamaica, Ian Randle Publishers, 1994, 162-181.

Photo Below: Audrey Layne Jeffers (Institute for Gender and Development Studies)

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Indian Indentured Women and the Myth of Docility

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Indian Indentured Women and the Myth of Docility

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Thursday 13th April, 2017

Following the abolition of enslavement in the British West Indies migratory schemes were put in place by the British colonial powers to replace the African slave labour. One such scheme involved the introduction of the East Indian Indentured labourers to several of the British West Indian Territories (pictured below. This scheme was not forced labour like chattel slavery but it was still quite exploitative as it involved hard low-wage labour, mobility restrictions and other unreasonable measures of social control. Indian women in particular experienced a milieu of injustices, particularly when related to their wage earning capacity.

On the plantation, particularly in Trinidad, the numbers of Indian indentured women were far less than the numbers of their male counterparts, providing a basis for greater sexual and social autonomy (Reddock, 579). Women not only were not only able to remove themselves from the patriarchal hold of Indian kinship customs but also to attain independence though wage earning. It is important, however, to understand that Indian women received less pay for equal work, but still stove to be more productive than the indentured Indian men to maintain their self-sustenance. The picture below gives a glance into the lives of productivity and physical labour that indentured Indian women committed themselves to, particularly in the early years of the labour scheme

These notions seem to subvert the racialized gender stereotype that Indian women were and are docile and domestic, especially within patriarchal family structures. What is responsible for this myth is what followed the trident-like opposition to Indian women’s autonomy on the plantation: the displeased colonial officers, the Europeanized religious entities and the population of Indentured Indian men who felt like their patriarchy was being usurped (Reddock, 582). The disdain from these collective entities controlled public policy, especially as more female Indian indentures came to the colonies, by depressing their wages to the point of impracticality: it was more economically viable for the women to complete domestic and childcare work at home than to work on the plantation. This thereby encouraged family units in which men were the sole breadwinners, erasing the progress of autonomy among Indian women.

Understanding the realities of Indentured Indian women are of pertinence in several ways. Firstly it seeks to explain the origins of harmful and presumptuous gender stereotypes and encourages a rethinking of the popularization of these ideas in the Caribbean region, especially as they apply to the intersections of Indo-Caribbean gendered identities. Additionally, in the discussion of a home-grown feminism, it is the starting point for an elaborate conversation on the gendered wage gap that is specific to Caribbean society, especially since it is still a forefront issue in regional Gender Justice Movements. Finally, it allows one to witness the way that colonial hegemony allied with male hegemony has created a problematic environment for Caribbean women and, by extension, Caribbean society in history and the present.

Works Cited

1)      Reddock, Rhoda. “The Indentured Experience: Indian Women in Trinidad and Tobago 1845-1917.” Engendering Caribbean History Cross-Cultural Perspectives, edited by V. Shepherd, Ian Randle Publishers, 2011, 574-586.

Photo Below: Indentured Indian workers in Trinidad cutting cane (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday)

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Enslaved African Women and “The Enchained Womb”

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Enslaved African Women and “The Enchained Womb”

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Tuesday 11th April, 2017

The institution of West Indian enslavement and its lengthy history in the region has shaped social processes and political ideologies, without a doubt. The forced migration and labour of African enslaved population left a mass of persons socially displaced and highly exploited. This system also encouraged the subordination of enslaved African women in a number of ways that deprived them not only of individual dignity but also institutional and ideological empowerment. The photograph below is representative not only of women's physical chains but the enslavement they experienced in their personal and sexual lives as slaves.

It is important to note that during the colonial slave era, power was stratified not only by race and class, but that the purposeful manipulation of the distinct experiences of slave men and women compounded these notions of power and wealth distribution (Beckles, 369). Slave women in particular, because of their capacity to reproduce, were often sexually exploited, a concept Beckles refers to as the “enchained womb,” (370). Forced pregnancies though rape were common especially following the abolition of the slave trade as reproduction was the only legally legitimate way to acquire new slaves. This phenomenon gave rise to resistance from the female slave population in the form of infanticide and abortion. They were relatively non-insurrectionary forms of resistance but were crucial to the core functioning, economics and sustenance of the plantation system.

The prevalence home-grown women’s movements are typically responses to historical inequalities that are contextual to the Caribbean. The emergence of sexual and reproductive politics in the scope of Caribbean feminism finds its roots here, in the challenges faced by African enslaved women. This movement for reproductive rights still exists and comprises one of the many facets of today’s women’s movements.

Works Cited

1) Beckles, Hilary McD. "Enslaved Women and Anti Slavery Politics." Engendering Caribbean History Cross-Cultural Perspectives, edited by V. Shepherd, Ian Randle Publishers, 2011, 269-280.

Photo Below: Slave, with a Weight chained to her Ancle, 1796, by John Gabriel Stedman (Canadian Museum of History).

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Women's Movements in the Caribbean - A Feminism We Can Relate To

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Women's Movements in the Caribbean - A Feminism We Can Relate To

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Friday 7th April, 2017

On the 9th of March, 2017, the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian Newspaper posted on their online news site an article (see attached) that highlighted the then upcoming #LifeInLeggings March; a Caribbean-wide, Pro-Feminist rally centred on building awareness around the issues of sexual harassment and domestic violence. Across the participating Caribbean countries, the marches were a resounding success, attracting large numbers of men and women who expressed their support for the promotion of women’s rights and equitable treatment.

The concept of Feminism has typically been seen through the lenses of what is shared through Westernised and Global North oriented mass media, but it is imperative as a citizen of the Caribbean to understand that there are Caribbean embodiments of Feminist thought that examine women’s experiences in the historical context and social dynamism of the region. Rhoda Reddock defines feminism as, “the awareness of the oppression, exploitation and/or subordination of women within the society and the conscious action to change and transform this situation,” (53). As a Trinidadian scholar and gender theorist, Reddock has created this clear-cut and precise definition that comfortably leaves room for women from the Caribbean to identify with feminism and the associated notions of gender justice.

The Caribbean region’s collective yet unique historical identity has been incredibly instrumental in creating what we can refer to as “Homegrown Feminism,” (Paravisini-Gerbert, 3-17). This ideology takes into consideration the specificities of the Caribbean’s migratory and colonial past while simultaneously inculcating issues of ethnic and racial diversity, class divisions, religious influence and a host of other factors that speak to the intersectional and nuanced nature of the activism for gender justice in the region. From the almost erased experiences of the indigenous women to today, the Caribbean has experienced progression in the political ideologies around Women’s Movements and greater yearnings for understanding the complexity of power relations as they relate to gendered divisions.

What the Life in Leggings Movement and the attached article represents in the Caribbean is a way in which regional history and relevant issues can be legitimized in an effort to create progress. What matters to people of the region is self-determined and based on very specific conditions of localized and real-life experiences. This is essential to defining the Caribbean region, as it affords the ability to deconstruct notions that ideological progress is essentially ethnocentric and owned by the Global North. Homegrown Feminism embodies this especially since the oppressive structure of Patriarchy - a system of domination of men and subordination of women - is universal while simultaneously being culturally defined. Hence, Patricia Mohammed’s work centred on Third Wave Feminism accurately describes the way the gendered consciousness is dispersed in society, “Like Sugar in Coffee,” (14): subtle but ever-present. Feminism and awareness of gendered power relations in the Caribbean is real, relevant and imperative for defining the progress of social justice in the region.

Works Cited

1.      Mohammed, Patricia. “Like Sugar in Coffee: Third Wave Feminism and the Caribbean.” Social and Economic Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, 2003,www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27865339.pdf. Accessed 7th March, 2017.

2.      Paravisini-Gerbert, Lizabeth. “Decolonizing Feminism: The Home-Grown Roots of Caribbean Women’s Movements.” Daughters of Caliban: Caribbean Women in the Twentieth Century, edited by Lopez Springfield, Indiana University Press, 1997, 3-17, www.academia.edu/3670392/Decolonizing_Feminism_The_Home-Grown_Roots_of_Caribbean_Womens_Movement. Accessed 7th March, 2017.

3.      Reddock, Rhoda. “Feminism and Feminist Thought: An Historical Overview.” Gender in Caribbean Development, edited by Mohammed and Shepherd, Canoe Press UWI, 1999, 53-73.