Resource information
This report examines the effect of
gender on socio-economic outcomes in three Caribbean
countries: the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.
Organized in three separate country notes, it covers:
demographics, health and reproductive health, violence,
education, labor and agriculture. The report is part of a
large effort aimed at establishing a strategic social agenda
in the region. Many of the key economic issues that
Caribbean countries confront today have an important gender
dimension, these includes crime and violence, reproductive
and sexual health issues, low education levels, unstable
family structure, poverty and inequality. Gender roles and
relations influence these socio-economic issues. For
example, violent crime is concentrated among young men, who
are both victims and offenders; domestic violence is
extensive in the Caribbean sub region and for the most and
for the most part involves men as the aggressors and women
as the victims. Aggressive men behavior has been linked to
the inability of men, mostly low income men, to meet social
expectations of achieving and providing for the family, as
well as to socialization patterns that teach boys to be
tough and girls to be submissive. Over the long term, gender
work in the three countries should continue to address
socialization processes and norms that cause men and women
to assume negative roles in the socio-economic stability of
each country.
