Women in Haiti

Political representation

The Haitian government has a Ministry of Women's Affairs, but the ministry lacks the resources to address issues such as gender-violence and workplace-harassment . Political figures such as Michele Pierre-Louis, Haiti's second female prime minister, have adopted agendas aimed at addressing inequalities and persecutions against women. Her tenure as Prime Minister had a positive effect on women's political leadership in a country where women accounted for 25% of government ministers in 2005.

History of the Haitian women's movement

Women have been involved in social movements in Haiti since the battle for independence.

In the 1930s, following an economic crisis, a women's movement emerged in Haiti. The crisis is thought to have forced middle-class Haitian women to work outside the home, like their lower-class counterparts, for the first time. This was also a time when more elite women began to pursue post-secondary education and L'Université D'Etat d'Haiti opened its doors to women. The first Haitian woman to receive a secondary education graduated in 1933.

One of the first established feminist organizations in Haiti was called the Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale (Feminine League for Social Action) and was created in 1934. Its initial members, who were mostly from the Elite, included Madeleine Sylvain, Alice Garoute, Fernande Bellegarde, Thérèse Hudicourt, Alice Mathon, Marie-Thérèse Colimon, Léonie Coicou Madiou, and Marie-Thérèse Poitevien. The Ligue was banned by the government two months after its founding. The league was re-established after agreeing to study its goals rather than immediately implementing them. The league is credited with helping secure voting rights for women in 1957.

In 1950, writer and feminist Paulette Poujol-Oriol joined the league. She later served as president of the League from 1997 until her death on March 11, 2011. She was also a founding member of L'Alliance des Femmes Haitiennes, an umbrella organization representing over 50 women's groups.

Under François Duvalier, some women were appointed to government leadership positions: Rosalie Adolphe (aka Madame Max Adolphe) was appointed head of the secret police Volontaires de La Sécurité Nationale, also known as the Tonton Macoute; Lydia O. Jeanty was named Under-Secretary of Labor in 1957; and Lucienne Heurtelou, the widow of former president Dumarsais Estimé, was Haiti's first female ambassador. Marie-Denise Duvalier was considered a potential successor to her father in 1971.

In 2010, Rezo Fanm Kapab Dayiti, a network of women's rights organisations founded by Tina Nadine Anilus, was established.

Sexual violence

Women in Haiti often face threats to their security and well-being from rape, kidnapping and human trafficking.

Documented cases of politically motivated rape, massacres, forced disappearance, and violent assaults on entire neighborhoods increased greatly at the end of 1993, under the military dictatorship of Raoul Cédras. Reports from women's rights groups in Haiti revealed that women were targeted for abuse in ways and for reasons that men were not. Uniformed military personnel and their civilian allies threatened and attacked women's organizations for their work in defense of women's rights and subjected women to gender -specific forms of abuse ranging from assaults on women's breasts to rape.

The troubles preceding the 2004 coup were seen by many nationwide women's group as a reminder of the 1991–94 coup d'etat tactics with the use of rape, kidnapping, and murders as forms of intimidation. Although many of the feminist activists in Haiti campaigned for the election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide before his first term (1991–1995), many of them, especially intellectuals like Myriam Merlet or Magalie Marcelin, criticized the way the first democratically elected president of Haiti ruled the country during his second term (2000–2004). Other observers, who were more favorable of the Fanmi Lavalas party, were more inclined to criticise the period after the coup as a "rewind" back to the same dictatorship tactics: "a terror campaign employing rape, murder and disappearance as tactics, and rapidly increasing insecurity undermining all economic activity of the informal sector."

To this day, Haiti is "gripped by shocking levels of sexual violence against girls;" of particular concern is the number of cases of sexual violence reported in the run-up to or during Carnival.

Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have emphasized the state's duty to exercize due diligence to prevent and eradicate violence and discrimination against women.

Despite the MINUSTAH's peacekeeping mandate, a number of cases arose where the UN soldiers were found to have abused women.

Education

Women's education history

Women in Haiti have historically had unequal access to education, as a male-dominated society with colonial origins restricted girls' and women's access to school.

This formally changed with The Constitution of 1843, but the first documented account of a primary school established for girls in Port-au-Prince dates to 1844. Although the political leadership attempted to address unequal education at the time, economic and social barriers made progress difficult, and the number of girls attending school didn't increase until 1860. However, secondary education for women developed faster than primary education for girls. The first secondary school for women was established by Marie-Rose Léodille Delaunay in 1850. Following the law of 1893, the government had established six secondary schools for women by 1895. Although most Latin American countries had achieved universal or near universal primary education for all children, in Haiti the primary school enrollment rate for boys was still somewhat higher than that of girls in 1987.

The overall system

The education system in Haiti is underdeveloped. Although there are primary, secondary, and tertiary schools, attendance and graduation levels, particularly at upper levels, is low. Poverty forces many people to prioritze earning an income for their livelihoods. In the Haitian school system, formal education begins at preschool, followed by nine years of fundamental education. Beginning the second year of secondary education, students can pursue vocational training programs. Higher education after the completion of secondary studies is uncommon but highly valued, as many children do not have the opportunity to begin their eduction. Tuition rates have increased substantially, including at the preschool level. What once cost 1628 gourdes ($41) in 2004, increased to 4675 gourdes ($117) in 2007. This represents an increase of 187% in the three years which many families cannot afford, especially families in rural Haiti. The rural-urban disparity is considerable : nearly 25% of the women in urban areas have finished secondary school, compared with less than 2% in rural areas. Women in rural areas also face barriers to education as many young girls have to work to support their families. Overall, according to a study by the Haitian Institute of Statistics and IT, 39% of Haitians have never attended school. In the 6-12 age range, it is 37.7%. Situations worsened after the 2010 earthquake.

Post-2010 earthquake

More than 4,000 schools, including preschool, secondary, higher education, and vocational institutions, were substantially damaged by the 2010 earthquake, and more than 1,200 were destroyed. Many teachers and students were killed. The entire education system was forced to shut down, not least due to the Ministry of Education itself collapsing. "With a lack of stable infrastructure, supplies, and a high demand for educated school officials, children, especially girls, had to help their family in informal ways. A pre-earthquake study by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights concluded that almost all Haitian girls worked in the informal market, primarily between the ages of 5 and 9. Although sources have suggested that educational inequality is narrowing as the average growth enrollment has been significantly greater for girls than for boys, other evidence does not support this conclusion. As of 2015, 60.7% of the population was literate. Males had a higher literaly rate, at about 64.3%. Constricted by gender roles and violence, women's literacy rates were at 57.3%. Sexual violence also contributes to barriers to education and literacy rates for women aged 15–19.