Where Life Meets Law: Gender, Justice and Development in the Context of Caribbean Societies Where Life Meets Law: Gender, Justice and Development in the Context of Caribbean Societies By Violet Eudine Barriteau, PhD. © 2011 By Violet Eudine Barriteau, PhD. © 2011

Guiding Objective To provide a greater appreciation of the relationship between gender, law and development, and how gender stereotypes influence the administration of justice, access to justice and the rule of law.

Gender Defined Complex systems of personal and social relations of power through which women and men are socially created and maintained, and through which they gain access to, or are allocated status, power and material resources within society [Barriteau 1994; 1998].

Gender Relations Gender relations are continuous social, political, economic, cultural and psychological expressions of the material and ideological dimensions of a gender system. Gender relations often mask unequal power relations between women and men, and between women and the state.

GENDER SYSTEMS Relations of Power Based on Gender Ideological Relations of Gender Material Relations of Gender Gender Ideologies 1.Gender Identities: masculinities, femininities, alternatives gender identities 2.Gender-role identity 3.Culturally specific construction of what it means to be a ‘man’ a ‘woman’ in a given society. Specific outcomes based on whether there is justice in dimensions. Ruptures and disjunctures Access to material and non- material resources of status, power and privilege. Allocation of resources. Source: Barriteau 1998B: 193.

Hierarchies of Gender What it means to be a man is ranked and valued more by societies than what it means to be a woman. Because these inequalities and hierarchies are continuously reinforced, gender systems do not operate neutrally [Barriteau 2006: 182].

“Should there have been the slightest doubt over the depths to which West Indies cricket has sunk it has been distressingly confirmed with the announcement that a 36-year-old woman is to be included in the Empire’s Division 1 team for its next round of matches. That Empire cannot now find, within its membership, a young male all- rounder worthy of Division 1 cricket, even at its present depressed standard, and have to turn to a “middle-aged” female for strength goes a long way to explaining the current state of Barbados and by extension, West Indies cricket” [Cozier 2005].

Development Defined The spiritual, cultural and material well being of children, women and men that nurtures a quality of living free of relations of domination whether of gender, race, class or sexual orientation……it is a societal ideal that should inform access to or the distribution of justice [Barriteau 1993: 7].

Gender Justice “A societal condition in which there are no asymmetries of access to, or allocation of, status, power and material resources in a society, ‘or in the control over and capacity to benefit from these resources’ [Barriteau 2003c: 327]. In a gender system characterised by gender justice there will be no hierarchies of gender identities or of the meanings society gives to masculinity and femininity” [Barriteau 2004: 439; Barriteau 1998: 192].

Where Life Meets Law: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago 1. Protection of sexual choices 2. Protection of minors

“The Government of Trinidad and Tobago would be defending the rights of people’s sexual preferences. Sexuality is normal and natural and you cannot impose your beliefs or your values on somebody else….because they do not conform with what your idea of respectability is. Citizens must be respected regardless of their sexual preferences….No one has the authority to take away a citizen’s right to choose.” Minister St. Rose-Greaves

Interrogates the power imbalance in gender relations arising in economic, political, religious and cultural practices.

FemaleMale Marriage Act Chapter Islamic 1216 Marriage Act Chapter Hindu 1418 Orisha Marriage Act1618 Marriage Act Chapter Civil and Christian (18) 12 (18) 14 Age of Consent for Marriage in Trinidad and Tobago

“Trinidad and Tobago as a maturing democracy, on the eve of celebrating its fiftieth anniversary must take a deep and penetrating look at whether or not at this time of great national and global advance with regards to the rights and status of women and children that early marriage should continue to be on the statute books of Trinidad and Tobago.” Minister St. Rose-Greaves