Women in Guyana are a cross-section of Asian, African, and indigenous backgrounds. British colonization and imperialism have contributed to the sexism against Guyanese women in the household, politics, and education.
A country with primarily Indo-Guyanese, Afro-Guyanese, and Amerindian women, Guyana has also been home to women of European (mainly Portuguese) and Chinese descent. Indian emigration to the West-Indies is mostly concentrated in Guyana (43.5%).[6]
Roles in Society
Many urban Guyanese women are breadwinners and heads of the households, particularly in working-class families. In 1966, after Guyana's independence, women had to acquire stable jobs to accumulate a portion of the household income. As a result of the instability of Guyana's economy post-independence, it led to an increase in marriage and generational conflict.[7]
Early records about South Asian women (a large percentage from India)[9] brought to Guyana for indentured, agricultural labor to bolster the British Empire's economy defined a "barbaric other" which sometimes blurred the identities of the empire's non-European subjects. Official colonial-era documents often led to the portrayal of "libidinous, immoral women" or female victims.[10]:14
Afro-Guyanese Women
Early studies of gender in the Caribbean defined households in terms of the "Euro-American nuclear family", and the assumption of female domesticity disregarded women's roles outside the family. Afro-Caribbean households headed by women were framed as "deviant, disintegrated, denuded, and incomplete", stereotyping households as run by a "strong, independent female and her obverse, the marginal Afro-Caribbean male" (in contrast to the Indo-Caribbean "submissive housewife").[11]
In 1992 statistics, about "40% of Afro-Guyanese women live in a household with a male partner, as against 58% of the Indo-Guyanese women".[12]
Research Results
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Women in the Caribbean Project (WICP) surveyed women in the light of feminist research. In the 1990s, research shifted from creating visibility to a more "explanatory framework for gendered relations." A major drawback of the research is its almost-exclusive focus on low-income women, which has led to stereotyping and conclusions which fail to represent Caribbean women as a whole.[5]:96[11] Although some progress had been made towards women's rights by 2019, "only 24.5% of indicators needed to monitor the SDGs from a gender perspective are available";[13] this creates knowledge gaps in information critical to reaching gender-based goals.
History
Female presence and demographics differ during the major periods of Guyana's history.The origin of Guyanese diversity is the European colonial creation of a "stratified, color-coded social class."[5]:9 Women's roles in a plantation society reflected their racial identity and their perception as "maintainers of culture".
Colonial Guiana
At the onset of colonial settlement, very few women of European descent immigrated to what was then known as the Guianas; the plantation system drew women and men from Africa as enslaved labor. Very little accommodation was made for pregnant or nursing women in their work hours or punishment.[14] The inevitable unions resulting from this gender disparity were viewed as perversions, although little was done to address rape or sexual violence against women (who were ever granted rights on a par with their colonial, white masters). This led to the racial stratification of society, with appearance-based terms such as mulatto, terceroes, and quadroon defining individuals. English women were seen as "refined and virtuous", a panacea for the colony's social ills.[15]
Emancipation
Free Afro-Guyanese and those who had been emancipated sought to avoid the plantation system by establishing their own villages, pooling their money to purchase land for agriculture. This village movement was seen as a threat to the sugar estates which still needed labor, and the colonial government enacted laws which prevented the purchase of land. Denied a means of subsistence, the Afro-Guyanese moved into the hinterlands as pork-knocker miners or to urban areas for employment.[11]
Indenture
The emancipated Afro-Guyanese sought identities other than plantation labor. Sugar estates filled their labor quotas with indentured servants from India and, to a lesser extent, China and Portugal. The first wave of indentured servants from India arrived in 1845.[16]
Recruiters earned higher wages for contracting women, so deception and the "sexual exploitation of single women was not uncommon."[16]:41 Even though women came from an array of backgrounds, some religions or hierarchies made migration "easier than others."[16]:72 Women of lower castes were easy targets for recruitment, since the upper castes[17][circular reference] could afford to limit the mobility of their women as a means of protection. Caste practices and patriarchal rules were easily disrupted by economic hardship, leading to vulnerability; famines led to higher rates of indenture.[16]:42 The kala pani taboo was associated with impurity and correlated with criminal punishment.[18]
"The regions of Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the Cauvery Valley in the South, were characterized by intense cultivation, high population density, and a rigid and stratified society"; labor was drawn from these areas to work in under-utilized areas of India and abroad. About 92 percent of the female workforce between 1876 and 1892 were from the regions of Bihar, the North-Western Provinces and Awadh, and almost 85 percent of the total female immigrants between 1908 and 1917 came from the United Provinces and Agra.[16]:35–38
From the 1840s to the 1880s, most women who were recruited for plantations were single or travelling with children. Married women made up a smaller percentage, from 25.57 to 35.98 percent[16]:54 of the total female population emigrating from India to the West Indies between 1845 and 1886. The displacement from India to the colonies impacted gender norms when women entered the recruitment depot. According to Patricia Mohammed, "The men and women who chose to leave India entered into a different negotiation of gender relations than that which they would have experienced had they remained in India." The months-long journey from India to the Caribbean colonies fostered kinship (jahaji)[16]:114 between men and women which paralleled the Afro-Guyanese experience on slave ships, and rules about keeping the genders separated were not enforced. Travel to the West Indies was costly, and the high mortality rate of women during monsoon season led to the Indian Emigration Act VII of 1871,[16]:105 which dictated lower female quotas during those months. The rule was removed in 1879 after it was criticised for interfering with the "material comfort" of husbands, putting women's role as wives before labor. By the 1880s, it was seen as beneficial to encourage stability to prevent the social unrest seen as a symptom of gender imbalance, and the next five years saw an increase to an average of about 74 percent.[clarification needed] From 1876 to 1892, female workers were 46.3 percent of the total.[16]:56
According to colonial sources, Indian women were "subjugated widows fleeing a repressive, tradition-bound society for the free spaces on plantations abroad"[16]:12–13 or those engaging in "disloyal, immoral sexual behavior." Victorian English policy-makers sought to transport women who would be "good wives and mothers", encouraging the social harmony seen as essential for productive workers. Ordinance 16 of 1894[16]:66 reduced the term of indenture from five to three years to attract families and women of higher caste. The introduction of Indian women had a polarizing effect on relations between the Afro- and Indo-Guyanese, by enabling the immediate creation of families at the expense of social intermixing. The gender imbalance also had consequences for women in relationships outside the male Indian-worker class. European and Indian intermingling was seen as a threat to the manhood of the workforce; coupled with the injustices inherent in the plantation system, "Most felt that they could do little to 'protect their women' against outsiders". Although the gender ratio seems to imply that women could choose their partners, it was "a choice that was often abrogated by control and violence."[16]:232 Since many unions were unrecognized, violence was a common means of controlling women.[16]:246 During the second half of the 19th century, 87 women were reported killed on estates; in many cases brutally "chopped" by agricultural implements.[11] The murder of wives by husbands was often accompanied by suicide.[16]:247
Crimes against women during this period were only examined when they caused social unrest (disturbed the plantation labor force), and claims by women were dismissed as resulting from their "loose morals." Pregnancy put women in a vulnerable position for breaking their work contracts, and legal provisions were often disregarded by plantation management. Women faced "a triple exploitation of class, ethnicity, and gender... giving rise to tensions between competing, though unequal patriarchies - the hegemonizing white, the subordinated Indian, and sometimes, albeit very rarely, with the Afro-Caribbean sector."[16]:16
Sugar production was labor-intensive; estate owners did little to develop technology to enhance output, putting the industry in a vulnerable position when faced with global competition. The Immigration Ordinance No. 18 of 1891 set a minimum wage for workers during a depression in the sugar industry, setting a lower wage for "non-able-bodied" workers (which often included women).[16]:133–134
Unlike the Afro-Guyanese population, who primarily moved to urban areas when they were emancipated, the Indo-Guyanese maintained ties with agriculture after their indenture ended. By 1917, when the indenture system was abolished, nearly all Indo-Guyanese lived on (or worked for) the sugar estates; in 1939, women made up 31.49 percent[16]:148 of total Indian agricultural workers. They remained at the lowest skill level, however, and were rarely "drivers, overseers, or managers."[16]:129 Other domestic tasks, such as food preparation and childcare, were also expected. Formerly-indentured women's roles focused on the "household economy, namely in self-provisioning, peasant and surplus agricultural production and the formation of families."[16]:175 Women took supplementary jobs, such as shopkeepers or vendors of traditional Indian foods (still an important part of general Guyanese cuisine). Landholding, generally a legal right of women, typically was done by a spouse. The extended family (including children) was crucial to raising capital for land and pooling labor, with a "certain degree of power"[16]:151 granted to the male head of household. By the late 19th century, "control over the use and abuse of a woman's labor power was passed to the male authority."[16]:152 Informal patriarchal patterns took shape, with sons obtaining an education and daughters responsible for household tasks until a young marriage. The reconstruction of Hindu or Muslim values conflicted with those of Christian missionaries who sought to "civilize" the Guyanese population. An early resistance to education by the Indo-Guyanese was due to conflicting cultural values and the need for child labor, with increased resistance to educating daughters.[16]
Colonial opinion contrasted Afro-Guyanese women with their Indian counterparts, explaining behavior in the context of racial identity rather than as a reaction to the stratification of the plantation system. The acknowledgement that both groups of women responded similarly to their situations would have undermined the value of indenture as an institution and unified the groups. Socially-acceptable behavior was attributed to indenture as a "civilizing force" for Indians; former slaves were viewed as lazy and apathetic in the absence of discipline offered by subservience. The resulting stereotypes of the Indo-Guyanese homemaker and the independent Afro-Guyanese became entrenched as "immutable cultural essences" of self-identification.[11]
The percentage of women in the Guyanese workforce peaked at 44 percent around 1910, declining until the 1970s. Much of this was due to the prioritization of domestic work over other economic activity, and how side jobs were viewed by outsiders recording the information.[19]
Forbes Burnham's co-operative republic
Political rhetoric began during the 1950s to unite different ethnic groups in a labor-centred cause, but ethnic divisions were reinforced under People's National Congress (PNC) rule. Subsequent People's Progressive Party (PPP) victories were also based on racial divisions.[5]:54 During the economic collapse of the 1970s, women traded contraband goods in the parallel economy or left the economic and political strife for opportunities abroad.[19]
Household Dynamic
The difference in historical displacement alters the "family and household structure across ethnicity".[12] The relationship between marriage and motherhood is impacted by emigration and plantation slavery.
Slavery destroyed African family structure–not only separation from family in Africa, but the selling of individuals from a family in subsequent enslaved generations. Afro-Caribbean women tend to display their feminine presence through dominating their households. Thus, motherhood and marriage are not a causal relationship within most Afro-Caribbean households with the implementation of the visiting union or "friending" relationship dynamic. [12]
In 1992, studies concluded that only 40% of Afro-Guyanese women live with their male counterparts in comparison to the 58% of Indo-Guyanese women.[12]
For those who arrived in British Guiana from India, the loss of the extended family (India's basic social unit) also impacted family structure.[20] The typical Indian family (prevalent in East Africa and Fiji) followed a "classical extended family," a joint household of multiple generations. However, the plantation caste system destroyed the joint family unit. Recruitment of indentured servants prioritized qualified workers (healthy and young) over sustaining family members. In addition, the lack of "eligible single women" further bridged the ability to create new prosperous families. [6]
These factors can impact both ethnicities [Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese women]
Since the 1980s
A 1995 Human Development Report ranked Guyana "fairly high on its gender-related indicators". Women had control and autonomy at the household and community levels, but had limited access at higher levels to the economic resources available to men. Women outnumber men in health-and-welfare service industries, but men work in fields which directly impact the nation's GDP; motherhood is still viewed at the epitome of womanhood.[21]
Public-sector jobs followed ethnic lines, favoring the Afro-Guyanese. When the Indo-Guyanese-oriented PPP won the 1992 presidential election, the party did not draw Indo-Guyanese women into public-sector jobs. Low wages, job insecurity and lack of benefits defined the female workforce in 2001. Amerindian women are particularly disadvantaged, with economic and educational opportunities based on the coast (away from the hinterland Amerindian settlements). Most Amerindian women are self-employed in agricultural work.[19]
Legal and political issues
In 1946, the Women's Political and Economic Organization was founded by Janet Jagan and Winifred Gaskin. Shortly afterwards, Jagan and her husband formed the People's Progressive Party. The subsequent split and formation of the People's National Congress resulted in a two-party political environment largely based on race; although both parties followed a socialist ideology, female participation in politics did not increase as it did in other socialist countries.[22]
Although women won the right to vote in 1953, they continue to be under-represented in the political realm. Article 29 of the 1980 constitution embodied gender equality; Guyana signed the 1980 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, and ratified the equal-rights amendment in 1990. The legal recognition of Common-law unions ensures that property is inheritable by the widows or children of these unions.[19] Rights to property (including housing) can be credited to Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Public Welfare and Housing Agnes Bend-Kirtin-Holder, who had lost property from previous marriages; this made her "determined to change the legal position in relation to women."[23]
A legislative quota was enacted in 2000, when the National Assembly approved the Elections Laws (Amendment) Act No 15. The law established "a minimum of one-third female candidates included on each electoral list".[24] Although representation has improved, recognizable gains have been elusive.[25]
Contemporary issues
Weaknesses in Guyana's infrastructure significantly burden the poorest women, with services such as water and electricity intermittent and directly impacting their income. Healthcare and education have deteriorated since the 1980s. Malnutrition among Amerindian women is widespread, and the percentage of low-birth-weight Amerindian infants is twice the national average.[19]
Family life is shaped by emigration. The "transnational family" provides remittances on which Guyanese families have come to rely, but widens cultural differences by moving abroad and distancing themselves from a "backwards, primitive" Guyana.[5] More Indo-Guyanese women have deferred marriage since the 1970s, often to improve their chances for emigration through sponsorship or an overseas arranged marriage. Amerindian women tend to emigrate to Brazil.[19]
Gender ideology in Guyana parallels the Anglo-Protestant ideal of men as breadwinners and women as caregivers which was established during the colonial period and is seen throughout the Caribbean. Government policy has focused on women in the domestic sphere, and decision-making has been tied to welfare rather than development. Feminism was also seen as antithetical to socialism: a divisive issue which was largely avoided. Gender equality is fragmented by ethnicity, and women's groups are often affiliated with political or religious organizations. Being related to the two major political factions has hindered attempts at a unified women's group. Legislation legalizing abortion and prohibiting domestic violence (in 1995 and 1996, respectively) had support from all women's groups, but have done little to provide access to safe abortions or legal recourse against violence.[21]
Fifty-five percent of respondents to a survey sponsored by the United Nations reported experiencing intimate partner violence (significantly higher than the global average), and 38 percent experienced physical or sexual violence. More than one in ten had experienced physical or sexual violence from a male partner within 12 months of the survey. Although a "persistent belief" exists that Indo-Guyanese women are subjected to greater amount of violence (related to the cultural belief that Indo-Guyanese men are more controlling), the survey results indicated little statistical difference among ethnic groups.[29]
Female inferiority was fueled by male violence and lack of women representation in the public sector. Women were not seen as household breadwinners; further limiting their sexual autonomy and economic agency. Any exhibited dependency on men led to extreme violence.[11]
On plantation estates, women were reported murdered between 1859 and 1907.[11]
Disabled women
Non-governmental organizations sponsor projects addressing employment for disabled women in Guyana, but they are usually short-term and lack the continuity for sustained employment; national statistics and women's organizations lack data.[30]
Sexuality
Women's sexuality, defined by heterosexual child-rearing, is otherwise invisible. Stereotypes of butch lesbians as aggressive and violent, and the visibility of such women, endanger them for being seen as a threat to male hegemony. Femme lesbians and cis-gendered women of any sexual orientation or identity, who are established in a community and have children from previous marriages, face less hostility.[31] Male homosexuality is criminalized, and attempts to legislate equality regardless of sexual orientation have been thwarted by religious groups.[19]
The Guyana National AIDS Programme Secretariat initiated the Georgetown SW Project in 1996 to develop outreach and awareness of clinical services (including HIV testing) and a network for the distribution of condoms. Fifteen sex workers were trained in outreach, distributing condoms, educating other sex workers about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, condom negotiation and other safer-sex skills, and referring them to health services. Surveys of female sex workers in Georgetown indicated high rates of HIV: 25percent in 1993, 46 percent in 1997, and 30.6 percent in 2006.[32] Amerindian women are a disproportionate number of sex workers in Guyana; in the hinterland, sex work is often associated with mining camps which employ men from coastal areas.[33]
Women in Politics
The country has had a female president, Janet Jagan.
Women in Education
British authorities and plantation owners discouraged education amongst East Indian children. In fear that educated individuals will result in escapees and revolts. The Compulsory Education Act of 1876 excluded east Indian children.[34]
East Indian indentured servants were unskilled and uneducated, making them strictly qualified for agricultural work within Guyana. Without a formal education, East Indian women were successful in milk trading and gardening. Women comprised "77% of the East Indian milk sellers in 1891," with a decrease in percentage within two decades.[34] Despite the later implementation of Western education in assimilation tactics, East Indians remained largely uneducated. Schools conducted in English, but most East Indian children still spoke in their native Indian language. And formal education was required to perform urban-based careers outside of milk trading and gardening.
In 1946, conducted research established the 41.3% difference in literacy rates between Indo- and Afro-Guyanese populations. The English literacy rate of East Indians (above ten years of age) was 56% to the 97.3% literacy rate of Afro-Guyanese communities.[34]
Female Guyanese students have outperformed their male counterparts in regional examinations, and more women than men attend universities to advance their careers.
Women's Employment
Western assimilation influenced the trajectories of socio-economic prosperity within Guyanese communities. Learning to be literate in English was conditioning for urban employment; formal education was a requirement.
Exploitation and plantation resistance made Afro-Caribbean women dominant figures in paid workforce labor. Afro-Caribbean women to dominated urban-based fields.[6]
This is a demography of Guyana including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of Spanish, French, Dutch, and British settlers. During the colonial period, Guyana's economy was focused on plantation agriculture, which initially depended on slave labor. Guyana saw major slave rebellions in 1763 and 1823. Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India. Eventually, these Indians joined forces with Afro-Guyanese descendants of slaves to demand equal rights in government and society. After the Second World War, the British Empire pursued policy decolonization of its overseas territories, with independence granted to British Guiana on May 26, 1966. Following independence, Forbes Burnham of the rose to power, quickly becoming an authoritarian leader, pledging to bring socialism to Guyana. His power began to weaken following international attention brought to Guyana in wake of the Jonestown mass murder suicide in 1978.
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, or it may be imposed "involuntarily" as a judicial punishment. Historically, it has been used to pay for apprenticeships, typically when an apprentice agreed to work for free for a master tradesman to learn a trade. Later it was also used as a way for a person to pay the cost of transportation to colonies in the Americas.
The music of Guyana encompasses a range of musical styles and genres that draw from various influences including: Indian, Latino-Hispanic, European, African, Chinese, and Amerindian music. Popular Guyanese performers include: Terry Gajraj, Eddy Grant, Dave Martins & the Tradewinds, Aubrey Cummings, Colle´ Kharis and Nicky Porter. Eddie Hooper The Guyana Music Festival has proven to be influential on the Guyana music scene.
Indo-Caribbeans or Indian-Caribbeans are people in the Caribbean who are descendants of the Jahaji indentured laborers from India and the wider subcontinent, who were brought by the British, Dutch, and French during the colonial era from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. A minority of them are descendants from people who immigrated as entrepreneurs, businesspeople, merchants, engineers, doctors, religious leaders and other professional occupations beginning in the mid-20th century.
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Premier of British Guiana from 1964 to 1966, Prime Minister of Guyana from 1964 to 1980 and then as the first Executive President of Guyana from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of socialism.
Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are Guyanese nationals of Indian origin who trace their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginning in 1838, and continuing during the British Raj.
Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring conditions that severely constrained their ability to preserve their respective cultural traditions contributed to the adoption of Christianity and the values of British colonists.
The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers from India were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labor, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted till the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large Indian diaspora in the Caribbean, Natal, East Africa, Réunion, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean, Indo-African, Indo-Fijian, Indo-Malaysian, and Indo-Singaporean populations.
The article describes the state of race relations and racism in South America. Racism of various forms is found worldwide. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by August 8, 2006. In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, religious, economic or demographic reasons.
The people of Guyana, or Guyanese, come from a wide array of backgrounds and cultures including aboriginal natives, also known as Amerindians, those of Indian and African origins, as well as a minority of Chinese and European descendent peoples. Demographics as of 2012 are Indian 39.8%, Afro-Guyanese 30.1%, mixed race 19.9%, Amerindian 10.5%, other 1.5%.
Guyanese Americans are American people with Guyanese ancestry or immigrants who were born in Guyana. Guyana is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As of 2019, there are 231,649 Guyanese Americans currently living in the United States. The majority of Guyanese live in New York City – some 140,000 – making them the fifth-largest foreign-born population in the city.
The first numbers of Chinese arrived in British Guiana in 1853, forming an important minority of the indentured workforce. After their indenture, many who stayed on in Guyana came to be known as successful retailers, with considerable integration with the local culture. The most notable person of Chinese ancestry was the Former Guyana President Arthur Chung, was independent Guyana's first President from 1970 to 1980, and the first Chinese head of state of a non-Asian country.
Gender inequality in the English Caribbean refers to gaps between individuals based on gender in the Anglophone countries of the Caribbean. These gaps persist in the areas of human and physical capital endowments, in economic opportunities, and in the ability to make choices to achieve desired outcomes (agency).
Indo-Vincentians are an ethnic group in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who are mainly descendants of indentured laborers who came in the late 19th century to the early 20th century and entrepreneurs who began immigrating in the mid-20th century from the Indian subcontinent. There are about 5,900 people of Indian origin living in the country.
Women in the Americas are women who were born in, who live in, and are from the Americas, a regional area which encompasses the Caribbean region, Central America or Middle America, North America and South America. Their evolution, culture and history coincide with the history of the Americas, though often the experiences of women were different than those of male members of society. The differences in women's experiences often had to do with division of labor or constraints placed on them due to traditional roles in society. The effects of slavery, bondage and colonization has had a profound effect on women in the Americas over time.
Karen de Souza is a Guyanese women and child's rights activist who has worked to advocate for victims, educate and provide support for victims of violence. Founder of the NGO Red Thread anti-violence campaigns, she has been involved in training programmes of judicial officers and contributed to the drafting law to protect trafficking and anti-violence. Her advocacy has been recognized by both regional and international organizations.
Jane Phillips-Gay, CCH was an Afro-Guyanese trade unionist and an ordained minister. She was an advocate of women's rights, formed one of the first women's political organizations in the country and served as one of the first women to be elected as a Member of British Guiana Parliament. She was recognized with the national service honor, the Cacique Crown of Honor in 1975.
Feminism in the Caribbean refers to the collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women in the Caribbean.
The Indian community in Saint Kitts and Nevis is made up of Indo-Kittitians, Indo-Nevisians, non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin. Indo-Kittitians and Indo-Nevisians are nationals of Saint Kitts and Nevis whose ancestry lies within the country of India. The community originated from the Indian indentured workers brought to Saint Kitts and Nevis by the British in 1861 and 1874 respectively. By 1884, most of the community had emigrated to Caribbean nations with larger Indian populations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname.
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