Abstract
In this paper I explore the emergence of women's organizations and feminist consciousness in the twentieth century in the English-speaking (Commonwealth) Caribbean. The global ideas concerning women's equality from the 1960s onwards clearly informed the initiatives taken by both women and states of the Caribbean. None the less, the paper illustrates, by use of examples, the interlocked nature of women's struggles with the economic, social and political issues which preoccupy the region's population. I examine in greater detail two case studies of women's activism and mobilization around the impact of structural adjustment policies in the two territories of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. By tracing the connections between and among the organizations and initiatives of women in the region, the paper situates the feminist movement in the English-speaking Caribbean as a continuously evolving one, fusing episodic struggles in different territories, engaging women of different classes and groups, and continuously building on past experience.
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Editor's Note: This paper was originally titled ‘Women's Organizations and Movements in the Commonwealth Caribbean in the Context of the World Economic Crisis of the 1980s’ and was prepared from the Research Group ‘Women's Movements and Visions of the Future’ – Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) in June 1989.
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Reddock, R. Women's Organizations and Movements in the Commonwealth Caribbean: The Response to Global Economic Crisis in the 1980s. Fem Rev 59, 57–73 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1080/014177898339451
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/014177898339451