The primary objective of this course is to make students cognizant of the need to read and write the history of the English Caribbean with an eye on gender. The course stands on the premise that men and women did not experience the past in the same way and thus it is necessary to reinterpret the history by paying attention to women who have been largely ignored in the original historiography. Students will trace the history of the study of women and gender in higher level educational institues of the Caribbean. They will survey the sources available for writing women and gender and explore gender systems as a tool with which to analyse the evolution of Caribbean socieites. Thereafter, the focus will be on the past experiences of Amerindian, European, African, Indian and Chinese women in the Brtitish West Indies. In the final modules of the course the emphasis will be less on racial groups of women and more on the work, educational and socio-political experiences of all women inhabiting the regioin from the end of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century.
Department of History
Faculty of Humanities and Education
UWI St. Augustine
Tel: (868) 662-2002 ext. 82022
Fax (868) 663-9684
Email: Sherry-Ann.Singh@sta.uwi.edu
