Regional

Caribbean Women Face Major Setbacks

Although more women head household in the Caribbean than in any other developing region, they face "key setbacks" in attaining equality with men.

That’s the finding of a recent regional ministerial conference on gender issues held in Trinidad and Tobago in October 1999.

The conference identified poverty and violence as major obstacles to women’s enjoyment of their human rights. Women heading households - usually single parents - are often vulnerable to both.

Estimates of women-headed households in the Caribbean range from 23 per cent of all households in Belize to over 50 per cent in Antigua and Barbuda.

Although legal monogamous marriage and the nuclear family are viewed as an ideal, of the 53,000 births occuring each year in Jamaica, less than a quarter are recorded in the names of both parents.

Domestic violence is widespread. Researchers found that 30 per cent of women surveyed in Barbados in 1998 reported being battered as adults. Nearly one in three women interviewed said she was sexually abused during childhood or adolescence.