This article discusses different views about sustainable development, emphasizing -- on the basis of a survey conducted in Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba -- the role of rural women in food production and natural resource management, the strength of the rural women's movement in the conquest of rights, and the decisive participation of women in defining proposals for public policies that guarantee gender equality in rural areas. A brief comparative analysis leads us to conclude that the development model in the three countries still prioritizes the male figure in relation to land tenure, access to credit and purchase of equipment or other material resources, it is suggested that both in Cuba, a socialist country, and in Mexico and Brazil, capitalist counties, the assumptions of social policies directed to rural female workers should take into account the basic needs of rural women to guarantee a more humane and sustainable development. Adapted from the source document.
Allende,Isabel (Author) and Peden,Margaret Sayers (Translator)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
New York: Harper
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
457 p, The story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny in a society where that would seem impossible
For women writers of the Caribbean as well as for larger marginalized communities, the relationship between oral traditions and written texts is a part of the defining thread of Caribbean historiography. This article draws on Waugh and Hutcheon to examine the use of such texts by women writers of the Hispanophone Caribbean in order to highlight narrative strategies of historically marginalized groups to contest hegemonic constructions of the nation.
Reads Carnival-related performances in relationship to the colonial and national histories of the circulation of Indian and black women's bodies in Trinidad and Tobago, asking what is at stake in these occupations of genre, form, and performative presence in the latest global scenes of late capitalism (where image and sound, as cultural productions, are always in circulation beyond the scope of the nation, and their own "original" referents).
Analyzes the prominent role played by first wave feminism and by women writers between 1898-1903 as the Jamaica Times articulated a broad-based, middle class nationalism and launched a campaign to establish a Jamaican national literature. This archival material is significant because it suggests a significant modification of anglophone Caribbean feminist, literary and nationalist historiography: first wave feminism was not introduced to Jamaica exclusively through black nationalist organizations in the late 19th and early 20th century, but emerged in a broader phenomenon of respectable, middle class nationalism encompassing Jamaican nationalism and Pan Africanism.
203 p., Explores the work experiences of professional Caribbean immigrant English-speaking women in the United States. Much study has been dedicated to the experiences and success of Caribbean immigrant women and men in service and domestic roles. The study explores these professional immigrant women's experiences attaining career success in the United States racial society. Data was obtained from 12 professional Caribbean immigrant women using semi-structured interviews conducted by the researcher.
Explores the experiences of Caribbean women teachers who are recruited to teach in a mid sized Southern city. Narrative methods were used to analyze four Barbadian women teachers' perspectives on their: initial experiences and challenges; teaching philosophies and approaches to teaching American students; and successful transition into Louisville, Kentucky's public schools after five years of teaching. In an age where school districts across the nation seek educators from overseas to address the well-documented teacher shortage, this study has implications for helping future international teacher candidates transition into U.S. public schools.
101 p., Little published research describes views of intimate heterosexual relationships among non-Western samples of women. This study represents a first attempt to document Afro-Caribbean women's views about their intimate relationships. A small sample of 53 Afro-Caribbean women from the island of Barbados were interviewed in their homes for a larger study of body image. Included in the measures were questionnaires about the extent to which women's expectations were or were not met in their current heterosexual relationships and if symptoms of depression were experienced. The women in this study generally reported, like Western women, that their relationships met their expectations (whatever those expectations may have been), that they contributed more positive than negative behaviors to the relationship, and that they experienced mostly mild or infrequent depressive symptoms. Unlike findings for Western samples, however, neither relationship duration, women's level of education, nor the extent to which they reported depressive symptoms covaried with whether they reported that their expectations were met or not. In summary, this study did not shed light on possible sources of Afro-Caribbean women's relationship satisfaction, although it potentially ruled out a few.
Focuses upon the welfare citizenship experiences of older women who migrated in later life to England, either as refugees or as post-retirement migrants. It reports findings from interviews and focus groups conducted with black Caribbean, Irish, Chinese and Somali older women migrants in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK, as part of the Older Women's Lives and Voices Study.
220 p., Employs a black feminist diaspora literary lens to identify, define, trace, and speak to the African Diaspora as it functions in black women's diaspora fiction and informs our understanding of black women's diaspora identity. Considers three authors and novels by women of, in, and across the African Diaspora. The study centers on Sandra Jackson-Opoku's The River Where Blood Is Born as a primary site of analysis of diaspora formation and theorization, Dionne Brand's At the Full and Change of the Moon and Maryse Condé's Desirada as comparative textual and theoretical sites.
195 p., Paule Marshall's The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969), Gayl Jones' Corregidora (1975), and Octavia Butler's Kindred (1979) enhance our conceptualization of black aestheticism and black nationalism as cultural and political movements. The writers use the novel as genre to question the ideological paradigm of a black nationalist aesthetic by providing alternative definitions of community, black women's sexuality, and race relations. Because of the ways in which these writers respond to black aestheticism and black nationalism, they transform our understanding of movements often perceived as sexist, racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic.
173 p., Examines the effects of nationality and other factors influencing the employment of Haitian women in the U.S. labor force. Effects of human and social capital, as well as household and structural characteristics were explored. In an effort to better understand Haitian women's (N=3908, 16.9%) economic integration in the labor market, their total personal income, hours worked and wage income were compared with three other groups of immigrant women from Jamaica (N=5057, 21.8%) Cuba (N=8696, 37.4%) and the Dominican Republic (N=5540, 23.9%). Although these immigrant women came from the same region, this research argued that linguistic advantages set them apart.
210 p., In African and Caribbean literature the question of power relations is omnipresent. It is identifiable in the literature of the independence period, which explored socio-cultural issues while African and Caribbean nations were emerging from the grip of colonial powers, and also in that of today, where developed countries and developing countries are still negotiating their relationship. While the Black woman is the first to feel the effects of power, because the latter is doubly marginalized as a woman and black, she has historically been silenced by a literary canon that does not leave her room for self-expression. Through an analysis of power relations between Black women and the patriarchal institution, we reveal the tactics that women use to endure the alienating systems in which they are located: (1) the rehabilitation of their sexuality (2) feminine solidarity (3) formal education (4) supernatural power and (5) the reexamination of Western values.
107 p., Stephanie St Clair was born in 1897 on the island of Guadeloupe. In 1923 she created and ran a highly-lucrative policy bank in Harlem. By 1926, the operation earned a quarter of a million dollars To this day, she remains the only black female gangster to run a numbers bank of that size St Clair also contributed generously to the community and advocated for racial uplift. This thesis explores some of the factors that influenced her decision to become an entrepreneur who would create and run her own enterprise; and, paradoxically, become an activist within her community. Also implicit, and therefore a component of the inquiry, was St. Clair's decision to describe herself as a lady when the definition would not have applied to her in that era.
295 p., Focuses on the function of black vernacular myths and rituals in three primary women's texts of the Americas: Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon (1977), Simone Schwartz-Bart's Pluie et Vent sur Telumee Miracle (1972) and Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow (1983). My project codifies how the black vernacular expressions of mythology and ritual are used to negotiate power between the individual and their community. The author traces how the women in these texts used resources of the black vernacular tradition as social and cultural collateral to empower themselves within an alternative system of values that simultaneously validates self and communal worth.
239 p., Undertakes a critical task of "writing to" and "writing back to" Frantz Fanon on the issues of violence, masculinity, and nation-formation. The author deploys Brian Keith Axel's formulations of "national interruption" to position African diasporic women's novels--specifically Gayl Jones's Corregidora, Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, and Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory --as critical interruptions to Fanon's formulations.
175 p., Focuses on the lives of enslaved women in the Caribbean and their resistance to bondage. Caribbean enslaved women exhibited their strong character, independence and exceptional self worth through their opposition to the tasks they performed in the fields on plantations. Resistance was expressed in many different rebellious ways including not getting married, refusing to reproduce, and through various other forms as part of their open physical resistance. Identifies the role enslaved women in both the Caribbean and the USA played in major uprisings, revolts, and rebellions during their enslavement period.
Background. Perinatal depression among Black Caribbean women in the UK remains an intriguingly under-researched topic. Despite high levels of known psychosocial risks, Black Caribbeans remain relatively invisible among those seeking/receiving help for depression during and after pregnancy. Methods. In-depth interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of twelve Black Caribbean women selected from a larger sample (n=101) to examine prevalence and psychosocial risks for perinatal depression among this ethnic group. The study also sought to explore women's models of help-seeking. During analysis, the context in which help-seeking/giving is mediated emerged as a key issue. We explore the nature of these encounters thereby opening up the possibility of finding common ground between service users and providers for enabling women to receive the care and support they need. Findings. Whether or not women configure depressive feelings as 'symptoms' requiring external validation and intervention is a reflection both of the social embeddedness of those individuals and of how 'help-givers' perceive them and their particular needs. We suggest that the ways in which help-seeking/giving are commonly conceptualised might offer at least a partial explanation for apparently low levels of diagnosed perinatal depression among Black Caribbean women. Conclusions. Popular approaches to health seeking behaviours within health promotion and practice focus on individuals as the fulcrum for change, tending to overlook their embeddedness within 'reflexive communities'. This might serve to reinforce the invisibility of Black Caribbean women both in mainstream mental health services and associated research. Alternative approaches may be required to achieve government targets to reduce inequalities in access, care, and treatment and to deliver more responsive and culturally-appropriate mental health services.
Vanessa Gidden and Simone Edwards were in impressive form as Jamaica's female basketbailers romped to a historic 69-58 victory over the Virgin Islands, to claim the team's first ever medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
"Mother's Day is celebrated in so many ways throughout the world, the most popular to be sure is the brunch where the entire family can come together and celebrate mom together. It is interesting to note, however , that Mother's Day was first celebrated as a holiday - a holiday to commemorate women's public activism, women taking a stance to protect their families. And today in expressing our love and honouring mothers, is the least we can do", she said.
Argues that for a truly cosmopolitan anthropology to come about, we need to reflect critically on the conditions of our knowledge production. Using the example of women’s under-representation within anthropology, and the marginalization of the Caribbean, it is argued that we need to think more about the social ground beneath our feet and recognize the differential access that anthropologists across the globe and at home have to the ongoing larger conversation that constitutes the discipline.
For a truly cosmopolitan anthropology to come about, we need to reflect critically on the conditions of our knowledge production. Using the example of women's under-representation within anthropology, and the marginalization of the Caribbean. Argues that we need to think more about the social ground beneath our feet and recognize the differential access that anthropologists across the globe and at home have to the ongoing larger conversation that constitutes the discipline.
Reviews the book, Race, gender and educational desire: Why black women succeed and fail by Heidi Safia Mirza (2009). The author looks to understand and unpack the complex intersectionalities that mark contemporary black British feminism, teasing out their particular implications for education and educational debates today.
Argues that free African and African-descended women participated in Spain's colonization of the Caribbean to a degree that has not been fully recognized. Regularly described as vecinas (heads of household) and as spouses to Iberian men in key port cities, free women of color played active roles in the formation and maintenance of Spanish Caribbean society during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, not as peripheral or marginalized figures, but as non-elite insiders who pursued their own best interests and those of their families and associates.
Explores female entrepreneurial activities in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Specifically explores the following research questions: What percentage of the female and male Latin American populations is involved in opportunity- and necessity-based entrepreneurial activities? And what quality of institutions is associated with female entrepreneurial activity opportunity and necessity rates?
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., Based on what is known about the role of women in development, the highest returns to investment are likely to come from initiatives that harness the productive capacity of women.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
8 p., Targeted at some of Haiti's poorest and most vulnerable women, the Free Obstetric Care project offers free assisted childbirth and consultations to those who cannot afford to pay. This booklet looks at the impact of the project after its launch in 2008. Following the devastation caused by the January 2010 earthquake, the project will need to rebuild -- but its record documented in these pages, makes a compelling case not just to reestablish but to extend it to the whole country. Indeed, the experience of the SOG project demonstrates how free obstetric care can help to build the future health of women and newborns across Haiti.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
105 p., Caribbean women writers' fictional works can be used to examine female resistance to Caribbean social norms. British Victorian women's social roles can be connected to postcolonial Caribbean social structures exhibiting gender bias. These attitudes are not indigenous to regional men, but the result of attempts by Caribbean societies to mimic and adapt to European culture.
Maier,Elizabeth (Author) and Lebon,Nathalie (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
375 p, Contributors explore the emergence of the area’s feminist movement, dictatorships of the 1970s, the Central American uprisings, the urban, grassroots organizing for better living conditions, and finally, the turn toward public policy and formal political involvement and the alternative globalization movement. Includes Helen Safa's "Female-headed households and poverty in Latin America : a comparison of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic ";
Quito, Ecuador: Abya-Yala : Agence canadienne de développement international
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
436 p., Cómo han construido y construyen sus identidades étnicas y de género las mujeres y hombres negros del norte de Esmeraldas?, es la pregunta central de investigación que se plantea la autora. Sobre la base de un enfoque integrado de varias corrientes críticas del pensamiento social y combinando la investigación bibliográfica y el trabajo de campo en dos comunidades representativas, la autora resuelve la pregunta planteada inicialmente.
