Preface

• Author: Gemma Tang Nain
• Pages: 11-18

PREFACE

The fact that tracking progress on gender equality and women’s rights is on the

agenda is, itself, a sign of progress. But for commitments to have an impact, we need

accountability, action and political will. Noeleen Heyzer, UNIFEM, 2002

UNIFEM is pleased to be associated with this collection of essays on

Caribbean women which joins a number of other collections which have

emerged in the region over the past few years. Notable among these have

been

Mohammed, Patricia and Catherine Shepherd, 1988. Gender in Caribbean

Development

Leo Rhynie, Elsa, Barbara Bailey and Christine Barrow, 1997. Gender: A

Caribbean Multi-disciplinary Perspective

Barrow, Christine, 1998. Caribbean Portraits – Essays on Gender Ideologies

and Identities

Barriteau, Eudine, 2001. Confronting Power, Theorising Gender:

Interdisciplinary Perspectives in the Caribbean

Mohammed, Patricia, 2002 Gendered Realities: Essays in Caribbean Feminist

Thought

The major difference between this collection and the others, however, is

the deliberate effort to link the results of years of research and action to

specific governmental programmes focussing on women in a search to derive

more effective policy and programmatic action.

This collection follows the tradition of collaborative action, which has

been the hallmark of how Caribbean women organise.1 It originated in