Gender in Caribbean history

Abstract

A new spirit of reclamation permeated late twentieth-century Caribbean historiography, with gender emerging not only as a theme but as a conceptual perspective that called for a substantial rewriting of the region’s history. The context, both regional and international, was a process beginning in the 1960s, whereby scholarly discourse placed under scrutiny first women and then gender, including gender relations, men and masculinity. This process, from women’s or feminist history to gender history, was cross-fertilized by other disciplines closely linked to history, such as development studies, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology and archaeology. The result was a significant engendering of Caribbean history and historiography.