The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) is a nongovernmental organization that advocates for women's rights and empowerment in the Caribbean. The regional network, which serves as an umbrella organization for progressive feminist groups in over a dozen countries, is based in Castries, St. Lucia. [1] [2] [3]
CAFRA was founded in Barbados on 2 April 1985. [4] Its founders included Peggy Antrobus, Joan French, Rawwida Baksh, Honor Ford-Smith, Sonia Cuales, and Rhoda Reddock. [5] The organization was formed in response to both the wave of feminist activism in that period and the discomfort some women felt in the leftist political groups of the day. As one of the group's founders wrote in 2007:
"While there was official acceptance of women’s equality in these organisations, they were in actuality patriarchal structures, with strict hierarchies and few women in leadership positions. Feminist-oriented ideas in these spaces were dismissed as ‘bourgeois,’ ‘foreign’ and, as a result, ‘irrelevant’ and potentially divisive." [6]
CAFRA was the first regional women's organization that called itself "feminist". [7] Its most active period was the late 1980s and the 1990s, although it remains a significant player on women's issues in various Caribbean countries. [7]
CAFRA was based in Trinidad and Tobago for many years and is now based in St. Lucia. [4] [3] Though it is based in the English-speaking Caribbean, it covers all linguistic areas of the region; it is known as the Asociación Caribeña para la Investigación y Acción Feministas in Spanish and the Association Caraïbéenne pour la Recherche et l'Action Féministe in French. [8] [4]
The organization currently includes representatives from 17 constituencies: the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, the Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S Virgin Islands. [9]
A general meeting is held every three years, with a regional committee and continuation committee that meet annually. [4] It is overseen by a coordinator, of which there have been four in the history of the organization, beginning with Rawwida Baksh. The most recent coordinator is Flavia Cherry. [10] [11] [6]
There is also a CAFRA Youth League, which has branches in various countries. [12] [13]
CAFRA's active membership has primarily been Afro-Caribbean, although its members have worked to include Indo-Caribbean and other perspectives. [6]
CAFRA aims to promote women's ability to effect change in society, to fight oppression, and to "serve as facilitator of the regional women's movement." [4]
Its work has included research and advocacy on violence against women, gender bias, women and the environment, women and agriculture, and women and the law. [10] [11] [14] [15] [16] It has also advocated for sexual and reproductive health rights, although there were previously internal divisions on the issue, [7] [15] as well as LGBT rights. [17] CAFRA has also run donation drives after natural disasters. [13]
It previously published a bilingual magazine, CAFRA News, which launched in 1987. [6] [10] [18]
The organization's cultural efforts include publishing Creation Fire: A CAFRA Anthology of Caribbean Women's Poetry, said to be the first anthology of poetry by Caribbean women, in 1990. [19]
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
Liberal feminism, also called mainstream feminism, is a main branch of feminism defined by its focus on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy and informed by a human rights perspective. It is often considered culturally progressive and economically center-right to center-left. As the oldest of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought, liberal feminism has its roots in 19th century first-wave feminism seeking recognition of women as equal citizens, focusing particularly on women's suffrage and access to education, the effort associated with 19th century liberalism and progressivism. Liberal feminism "works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure." Liberal feminism places great emphasis on the public world, especially laws, political institutions, education and working life, and considers the denial of equal legal and political rights as the main obstacle to equality. As such liberal feminists have worked to bring women into the political mainstream. Liberal feminism is inclusive and socially progressive, while broadly supporting existing institutions of power in liberal democratic societies, and is associated with centrism and reformism. Liberal feminism tends to be adopted by white middle-class women who do not disagree with the current social structure; Zhang and Rios found that liberal feminism with its focus on equality is viewed as the dominant and "default" form of feminism. Liberal feminism actively supports men's involvement in feminism and both women and men have always been active participants in the movement; progressive men had an important role alongside women in the struggle for equal political rights since the movement was launched in the 19th century.
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Latin American feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and achieving equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for Latin American women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. People who practice feminism by advocating or supporting the rights and equality of women are feminists.
Beatrice Greig was a Trinidadian writer, editor and women's rights activist in the period between 1900 and 1940. She was one of the most influential voices for women's civil, economic and political equality during this time frame. She was one of the first women to run in an election in Trinidad.
Peggy Antrobus is a feminist activist, author, and scholar from the Caribbean. She served as Advisor on Women's Affairs to the government of Jamaica, and as United Nations advisor to the Barbados Ministry of Social Transformation. She is a founder member of several feminist organisations, including the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), the global South feminist network Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), and the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN). She is the author of The Global Women's Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies.
Rhoda Reddock is a Trinidadian educator and social activist. She has served as founder, chair, adviser, or member of several organizations, such as the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), the Global Fund for Women, and the Regional Advisory Committee of the Global Poosay Coalition on Women and AIDS established by UNAIDS. In 2002 she received the Seventh CARICOM Triennial Award for Women, was Trinidad and Tobago's nominee for the International Women of Courage Award in 2008, and was honoured in her country's National Honour Awards ceremony in 2012 with the Gold Medal for the Development of Women.
Nelcia Robinson-Hazell is a Black Carib poet, community organizer and activist. She has spearheaded the development of policy initiatives throughout the Caribbean on issues regarding gender and indigenous identity. Serving as the president of the National Council of Women of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, she began in the 1980s to change the organization toward political action. Recognizing a need to establish research on the needs of women, she was involved in the creation of both local and regional organizations to analyze and develop information about the socio-economic and political inequalities women faced. She created similar initiatives for indigenous peoples, beginning first in Saint Vincent and then expanding them regionally. Robinson has been involved in international directives including the World Summit for Social Development and the 1995 World Conference on Women, as well as follow-up conferences discussing such issues as poverty, economic empowerment and violence against women. She has served as a civil society representative on the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commissions and as chair of the Commonwealth Women's Network.
Gema Ramkeesoon was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian social worker and women's rights activist who was one of the early pioneers of the women's movement in Trinidad and Tobago. She was honored for her social service work as a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1950 and received the gold Hummingbird Medal from Trinidad and Tobago in 1976.
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Sonia Magdalena Cuales was a Curaçaoan feminist activist and writer. Her work in the United Nations system and with various advocacy groups focused on the intersection of women's rights and development across the Caribbean.
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