1st Edition
Gender Inequality and Women’s Citizenship Evidence from the Caribbean
Gender Inequality and Women’s Citizenship combines cases across Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to highlight the range of systemic inequalities that impact women in the Anglo-Caribbean.
Using empirical and secondary data and drawing on feminist theoretical insights, Yonique Campbell and Tracy-Ann Johnson-Myers examine a range of pertinent and intersecting social, political and economic challenges facing women in the Anglo-Caribbean. The issues explored include gender-based violence, barriers to women in politics, the effects of COVID-19 on women, and debates around the illegality of abortion rights and failure to protect the health of women by allowing them to exercise autonomy over their bodies. They raise questions about systemic inequalities resulting from patriarchal gender relations, heteronormativity, women's social and economic status, and state inaction.
This book is unique in its interdisciplinary analysis of gender inequality in the Anglo-Caribbean, mapping the intersection of women’s multiple identities and positionalities to determine the obstacles they encounter. It will be of interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations, Caribbean Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Development Studies, Sociology and Anthropology.
1. Introduction: Gender Challenges in the Caribbean 2. Barriers, Biases, Boys’ Club: A Qualitative Study of the Underrepresentation of Female Politicians in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. 3. Debating the Illegality of Abortion Rights in Jamaica: Challenges for Gender Equality and Collaborative Governance Approaches 4. The Invisibility of LGBTQ Women in Violence against Women Legislation in the Anglo-Caribbean: An Intersectional Analysis. 5. Health Inequalities & the Gendered Impact of COVID-19 on Women 6. Conclusion
Biography
Yonique Campbell is a senior lecturer in the Department of Government at The University of the West Indies, Mona. She is the author of Citizenship on the Margins: State Power, Security and Precariousness in 21st-Century Jamaica (2020) and co-editor (with Professor John Connell) of COVID in the Islands: A Comparative Perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific (2021). Her work has also appeared in Commonwealth and Comparative Politics and books published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Routledge.
Tracy-Ann Johnson-Myers is a researcher and a former lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies, Mona. She is the author of The Mixed Member Proportional System, Providing Greater Representation for Women? A Case Study of the New Zealand Experience (2017). She has researched and published on gender and identity politics in the Anglo-Caribbean and Canada. She adopts an intersectional approach to research to gain a more nuanced understanding of how different social categories, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability, interact and shape people’s experiences of oppression or privilege.
"This timely and well-researched book takes stock of how far Caribbean women have come in their struggle for equality and social justice. While acknowledging the gains made through the campaigns of named activists, this book draws on statistical data and testimonies/narratives to reveal the serious gaps in addressing violence against women and girls and ensuring that all women can access their legal and constitutional rights as citizens, especially in a global context where patriarchy and homophobia are being reasserted."
Patricia Daley, University of Oxford, UK
"Gender Justice! Women’s rights as human rights! The dominant themes of this impressive scholarly work are firmly grounded in research and rigorous analysis. Its contribution to the literature on public policy issues related to gender equity is significant. It will also serve as an invaluable resource for facilitating the necessary attitudinal, policy and cultural shifts the authors identify as crucial for dismantling barriers to gender justice."
Maxine Henry-Wilson, Former Minister of Education, Jamaica
"This is a fairly large volume of well-researched and insightful chapters, written by Campbell and Johnson-Myers, on gender inequalities and the effort to achieve greater gender justice in the Anglo-Caribbean. The more expansive and deeper the body of knowledge, the more that is required of new work in terms of rigour of method and reasoning, as well as its yield in terms of new insights into the phenomenon of gender inequality. This book meets the above stated requirements. It is a well-planned and well-executed (if I may borrow from the vocabulary of athletics) account of the state of gender inequalities in the region. It is rich in insights."
Anthony Harriott, University of the West Indies, Jamaica
"This book offers a deep and contextual examination of gender in the Anglo-Caribbean. The authors marshal a range of evidence to demonstrate and explain the persistence of gender-based inequalities in the region. Spanning the fields of politics, healthcare, human rights and domestic violence, this book makes a meaningful contribution to the discourse on women's equality in the Caribbean."
Se-shauna Wheatle, Associate Professor, Durham University, UK
