As Women’s History Month comes to a close, Professor Rosalea Hamilton shares her thoughts on the opportunities for women across the Caribbean and African diasporas.
By: Professor Rosalea Hamilton
On January 1, 1976, the UN launched the “United Nations Decade for Women” programme seeking to fast-track equal rights and opportunities for women around the world. Focusing on the central role of women in development, the decade helped to establish the legitimacy of women’s issues in the home, in business and as human beings. It also helped to highlight the many persistent inequalities facing women in many spheres of life.
After nearly 50 years, we have come a long way, but many challenges remain, especially for women of African descent who continue to face the intersecting, dehumanizing legacy of racism, sexism, ethic and gender discrimination, as well as harmful, archaic African traditions. Today, we can celebrate and take pride in the achievements of several women of African descent who have shattered the glass ceiling and opened new opportunities for others. We can also celebrate gender-based legislation and policies that have improved the lives of women and girls, as well as men and boys. While we celebrate, we continue to fight for our sisters still trapped in inter-generational cycles of gender-based violence (GBV), female genital mutilation and more. But, we must also continue to create new opportunities that can improve the lives of women, enhance social and economic development and create a better world.
Trailblazing Women
The Caribbean and the Americas have had a long, outstanding tradition of trailblazing women of African descent whose shoulders we stand on today, including: Freedom fighters Nanny of the Maroons (Jamaica) and Victoria Montou (Haiti), Prime Minister Eugenia Charles (Dominica), US Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (parents from Guyana & Barbados), Actress Cicely Tyson (parents from Nevis), ‘Queen of Salsa’ Celia Cruz (Cuba), Madam C.J. Walker (Louisiana, USA), Rosa Parks (Tuskegee, Alabama) and many more.
Their brave, pioneering work in various fields have opened many doors for Kamala Harris, Mia Mottley, Rihanna, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and others. In so doing, they have created the foundation for a grand rising of women in the Caribbean, the Americas, Africa and the African Diaspora. While these and other trailblazers lead and continue to open doors, many are constrained by fear, self-doubt, persistent gender discrimination, GBV, limited assets, climate challenges, as well as narrow lenses that often distort the full vision of the opportunities today and in the future.
Opportunities Abound
Tremendous opportunities are emerging, and new frontiers are being pursued by bold, pioneering women who have widened their lens and deepened their relationships regionally and globally, especially across the continent of Africa. With the historic development of the African Union (AU) in 2002, countless opportunities exist for determined and courageous African women and those in the African Diaspora to forge cultural, business, professional and other kinds of relationships that can foster transformative development.
The AU’s Vision 2063 – a master plan for transforming Africa into a global powerhouse – provides a strategic Pan-African framework for inclusive and sustainable development to enable unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity. This long-term, 50-year development trajectory envisions an Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on empowered women and youths.
With education, equal economic rights and supportive institutions, empowered African women will have more opportunities to own and inherit property, manage innovative businesses, create new industries and benefit from trade and investment opportunities provided by the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA). Together with their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, African women can be strengthened to effectively engage the world’s largest free trade area bringing together the 55 AU countries and eight (8) Regional Economic Communities into a single market of approximately 1.4 billion people. This includes actively addressing the logistical and other challenges that limits the potential of this gigantic market.
Trade between the Caribbean & Africa
Women in the Caribbean and Africa should note the estimated $1bn export potential for goods and services between the Caribbean and Africa. According to the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Caribbean can increase its goods exports to Africa by almost one-third to reach $264m annually.
Africa, on the other hand, can boost its good exports to the Caribbean by more than 50% in less than five years, potentially exporting $325m annually. Even greater opportunities exist in the trade in services. The rapid growth of Africa’s internet and digital penetration to some 570 million internet users over the last 20 years is expected to accelerate opportunities with the arrival of SpaceX’s Starlink and Google’s Equiano.
Rising to the task
As we celebrate another Women’s History Month, let’s seize emerging opportunities that can reposition women of African descent in a world that continues to devalue women and people of color. Vision 2063 can be used to reshape the lens of young, under 18 girls in Africa and the Diaspora who are planning their careers and contemplating their future. They must be encouraged to be confident and become ready to stand as co-equals with their male counterparts and other genders to create the new economy and society of Africa, the Diaspora and the world by 2063. The historical leadership of women of African descent leaves me no doubt that our girls will rise to the task of empowering themselves and others, lifting the boat for all, and creating a better world.
In spite of the many challenges that persist, it’s an exciting time to be a woman of African descent. Given our shared historical and socio-cultural reality, women in Africa and in the African Diaspora are making the connections and, in so doing, seizing the opportunities that abound, opening more doors and uplifting women. The grand rising of empowered women of African descent, together with women across the globe, can be seen as a game changer in improving the lives of children, families, communities, with the potential of changing the world!
Professor Rosalea Hamilton is the Founding Director at Institute of Law & Economics and a Distinguished Scholar of the P.J. Patterson Institute of Africa-Caribbean Advocacy. She’s also the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Sierra Leone in Jamaica, and the CEO of the Lasco Chin Foundation.
