Political Economy of Gender in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean

Eudine Barriteau exposes the precarious position of women in twentieth century Caribbean societies through analyzing the operations of gender systems. She reveals the absence of gender justice and equity, and demonstrates that after twenty-five years of policies on women, Caribbean societies still have not confronted the fundamental problem of women's subordination and the conditions that maintain this. The strategies used by developing states to focus on women are criticised as inadequate and it is recommended that state and society pay more attention to understanding the lives of women.

'This is a timely contribution to the debates on gender issues in the Caribbean. ..this book would seve as an excellent textbook for undergraduate students in courses on gender and development, as it pushes against commonly accepted tenets of gender relations in the Caribbean. Barriteau is to be commended for writing a thoughtful book that pushes against conventional perceptions of Caribbean women as essentially favoured economic and political citizens.' - Lyla Brown, Black and Asian Studies Association

EUDINE BARRITEAU is Director of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. She has been a Publications Specialist at UNESCO/CARNEID and a trained teacher at St. George Secondary School, Barbados.