Engendering Caribbean History

There is now a significant body of research on Caribbean Women’s History. In Engendering Caribbean History, Verene A. Shepherd builds on her previous collaborative work with colleagues Bridget Brereton and Barbara Bailey and presents a completely revised and expanded version of Engendering History (1995), which became a required text in colleges and universities in the Caribbean, North America and the UK. This comprehensive new volume has 10 sections comprising 54 articles from leading scholars in the fields of Women’s History and Gender Studies. Interdisciplinary and pan-Caribbean, this Reader focuses on key debates in history, sociology and politics in its survey of the critical discourses relating to conquest, the treatment of indigenous women, slavery, emancipation and the post-emancipation period. Engendering Caribbean History begins with an introduction to the diverse approaches used by historians to explore the history of women in the Caribbean. It is followed by a theoretical discussion on the construction of women’s history representative of the multiple experiences of women in Africa, Britain and the Caribbean. The stereotypical misrepresentation of enslaved and mixed race women by `outsiders’ is then discussed before delving into the period of African enslavement and the transition from slavery to freedom. Issues of gender, migration and identity as well as the study of women, politics and the law are covered in the subsequent sections. The Reader is rounded out by a discussion of the variety of sources and methodological approaches to the study of Caribbean women’s history before concluding with a return to the male marginalization debate. Comprehensive and wide-ranging, Engendering Caribbean History is a valuable contribution to the ongoing intellectual tradition moving Caribbean women’s experience away from the periphery and towards the mainstream of historical discourse.