Evaluation of CAFRA’s Work

In her address to the Conference on Caribbean Feminisms, Dr. Eudine Barriteau commented that “The political economy of the region has been drastically reconfigured by globalisation and its attendant fall outs – The current social and cultural landscape would be unrecognisable to an early twentieth century West Indian. For the past seven years, gender relations have been going through its most contested and hostile phase, and the vast majority of Caribbean women continue to experience, but not necessarily accept life defined by economic hardship and attempts to reassert patriarchal dominance. Unthinkable half-century ago, new pieces of legislation exist even though their applications and public reaction indicate why they took so long to appear. Women/Gender Machineries proliferate and are simultaneously generally very weak. Feminism is in the academy precarious and tentative as its hold may be. A reactionary Men’s Movement is upon us.”

Dr. Barriteau went on to say that time had not been taken to review the knowledge produced in communities and at national level, and posed several challenges to the women’s movement.

 The need to understand power, how we claim respect and use it

 Exposing and avoiding replication of hierarchies of power

 Ensuring the viability and relevance of feminist organising and scholarship and its relationship in the discourse on gender

 To maintain and support a meaningful dialogue with masculinities

 To unravel the knot of race/ethnicity/class

The eighth major challenge posed by Dr. Barriteau is the fragility and vulnerability of the women’s movement.

Some argue that there is no women’s movement and CAFRA is called to account as the organisation expected to unravel these knots and galvanise the movement. It is against the background that the time is right for an in depth evaluation of CAFRA’a operation.