The Woman Who Fathered Me: A Caribbean Womans Role in the Family Essay

The Woman Who Fathered Me: A Caribbean Woman's Role in the Family Female children born into low income families in Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean are burdened with a stereotype that their male counterparts will never know. When faced with the gender oppression their society has constantly been feeding, and the fact that so many women must act as the single financial heads of their families, many women of the Caribbean must settle for low paying occupations associated with 'female' or domestic labor. For women born into families at the bottom of the economic ladder, there is little hope of social mobility or escape from the fist of poverty. In most cases, the cycle continues to feed itself from mother to daughter. In my paper I will demonstrate this cycÀle by examining the Caribbean women's role in the family as head of the household and the education, employment and survival strategies characteristic to many of these women. I will conclude my paper by discussing some of the new organizations and movements that have surfaced in the C aribbean within the past thirty years that are fighting for women's empowerment. In his highly acclaimed novel In the Castle of My Skin, which he dedicates to his mother, in chapter three George Lamming eloquently describes what is actually a common scene among islands of the Caribbean: women gathered together in a common yard for the purpose of gossip. While it may seem to be an insignificant event, in a region where the responsibilities involved in raising a family fall mainly on women's shoulders, their bond with each other is essential. Miss Foster. My mother. Bob's mother. It seemed they were three pieces in a pattern which remained constant. Miss Foster had six children, th... .... 1998. 3. Ellis, Pat. Women of the Caribbean. New Jersey: Zeb Books Ltd., 1986. 4. Haniff, Nesha Z. Blaze a Fire. Toronto: Sister Vision, 1988. 5. Lamming, George. In the Castle of My Skin. USA: University of Michigan Press, 1991. 6. Massiah, Joycelin. omen as Heads of Households in the Caribbean: family structures and feminine status. Colchester: Unesco, 1983. 7. Senior, Olive. Working Miricles: Women's Lives in the English-speaking Caribbean. London: James Currey Ltd, 1991. 8. Shepherd, Verene. Engendering History: Caribbean Women in Historical Perspective. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. 9. Walker, Susan."Rastafarian Women Speak Out"The Toronto Star 12 Aug. 1994: Pg. D12. 10. Yawney, Carole D. Moving with the dawtas of Rastafari: from myth to reality. pgs. 15--23; 33--55; and 65--73. (excerpts from Teresa Turner's New Society.)