Discusses the poem, Mujer negra (1975), by Caribbean writer Nancy Morejón. Focuses on how the poem departs from the traditional aesthetic and sexual discourses which lead to the mythification and marginalization of black women. Highlights the methods by which the black female persona subverts these established discourses and creates a counter-discourse to re-define herself and her New World experience. Details the ideological underpinnings involved in this process.;
Considers the extent to which feminism and gender studies courses adequately explore diverse erotic desires in the Caribbean region. It offers a comparative investigation of questionnaire responses from Black female undergraduate students in England and Jamaica to assess the connections between their perceptions about sexual differences.
The rendering blacker of the Brazilian feminist movement has effectively signified the demarcation and institution within the agenda of the women's movement of the importance which the racial issue has, for example, for the following: the configuration of demographic policies; the characterisation of violence against women - introducing the concept of racial violence as a determining factor of the forms of violence suffered by half of the country's feminine population which is non-white; the introduction of ethnic/racial diseases or diseases that mainly afflict the black population, as fundamental issues in the formulation of public policies in the area of health; and the inclusion in the criticism of the selection mechanisms in the labour market the concept of "good appearance" as an element that perpetuates the inequalities between, and privileges of, white and black women.
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.
Presents the Antigua Declaration of the feminist and women's organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean adopted at the closing of their 2010 meeting in Antigua, Guatemala. Highlights concern by women's groups in the region regarding the slow implementation of the agreements in the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt.
Condé and Schwarz-Bart searched to explore the themes of alienation as Martinicans living in a European French society and the search for an identity that typifies the quintessential Caribbean patriarchal culture. The evolution in consciousness of the female and how she sees herself as part of the diasporic dilemma confronting Caribbean society is marked by the almost limited early works by women authors. As women found their voices and led the way for other women, a natural empowerment ensued with new loyalties as generations transcended the effects of colonialism, indentureship, and slavery.
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.
Attempts to develop an indigenous reading of feminism as both activism and discourse in the Caribbean. Draws on the ideas emerging in contemporary western feminist debates pertaining to sexual difference and equality and searches for a Caribbean feminist voice which defines feminism and feminist theory in the region, not as a linear narrative but one which has continually intersected with the politics of identity in the region.
"Rican women despite their different generations and social conditions, stand out as leaders who have set an example through decades of feminist struggle." (Ivette Romero-Cesareo)