Hanover Street: Un experimento de capacitacion femenina en soladadura y carpinteria

El Proyecto de Hanover Street, conocido oficialmente como United Women\u27s Woodworking and Welding Project (Proyecto de Carpintería y Soldadura de la Unión Femenina), es un experimento destinado a capacitar a un grupo de mujeres en oficios que usualmente desempeñan los hombres. Se inició en 1976 y fue el primer proyecto de esta clase de la Oficina de la Mujer Jamaiquina, una dependencia creada por el Gobierno de Jamaica durante el Año Internacional de la Mujer, para garantizar la total participación femenina en el desarrollo del país. A pesar de encontrarse aún en una etapa de desarrollo, el proyecto ha demostrado ya que mujeres de ingresos bajos pueden aprender oficios que tradicionalmente se han dejado a los hombres, y trabajar juntas para mejorar su propia vida. Los logros negatives y positives del proyecto estan suministrandole a la Oficina de la Mujer valiosas informaciones sobre la enseñanza de capacitación técnica, sobre la forma de cooperar con otras oficinas del gobierno, y sobre el establecimiento de estructuras cooperativas autosuficientes. Las lecciones aprendidas allí no benefician exclusivamente a Jamaica; se espera que serán igualmente útiles a personas de otros países que traten de resolver problemas similares. The Hanover Street Project, formally known as the United Women’s Woodworking and Welding Project, is an experiment in training women for jobs usually held only by men. Begun in 1976, this was the first such program of the Jamaica Women\u27s Bureau, established by the government during International Women\u27s Year to ensure that women participate fully in Jamaica’s development. The project demonstrated that low-income women can learn non-traditional skills and can work together to improve their lives. Through trial and error, the project is providing the Women\u27s Bureau with a wealth of information about teaching technical skills, working with other government agencies, and establishing self-sufficient cooperative structures. The lessons from this experience extend beyond Jamaica and, hopefully, will be useful to people in other countries who are addressing similar problems

Hanover Street: An experiment to train women in welding and carpentry

The Hanover Street Project, formally known as the United Women’s Woodworking and Welding Project, is an experiment in training women for jobs usually held only by men. Begun in 1976, this was the first such program of the Jamaica Women\u27s Bureau, established by the government during International Women\u27s Year to ensure that women participate fully in Jamaica’s development. The project demonstrated that low-income women can learn non-traditional skills and can work together to improve their lives. Through trial and error, the project is providing the Women\u27s Bureau with a wealth of information about teaching technical skills, working with other government agencies, and establishing self-sufficient cooperative structures. The lessons from this experience extend beyond Jamaica and, hopefully, will be useful to people in other countries who are addressing similar problems

Macro-micro linkages in Caribbean community development: The impact of global trends, state policies and a non-formal education project on rural women in St. Vincent (1974-1994)

A macroeconomic policy framework of structural adjustment designed to address problems of international indebtedness, adopted by CARICOM countries in the 1980s, has been associated with a major setback in the process of broad-based socioeconomic development that had been launched in the context of representative government and independence. The study examines the influence of these global/regional trends on state policy, with special reference to how the altered political vision of the state, inherent in structural adjustment policies, appeared to impact the welfare and livelihood of rural women and families in St. Vincent. The study also assesses the extent to which an innovative non-formal education project aimed at community development through the empowerment of women in a rural community, served to mitigate detrimental aspects of these policies and related state practices. The study utilized a feminist research methodology with a combination of interviews, focus groups and observation that provided multiple vantage points on macro and micro dimensions of the study. The author\u27s personal involvement in various aspects of development and the non-formal education project during this period serves as an additional lens. The study argues that a policy framework of structural adjustment severely weakens rural and social development, and is inappropriate to goals of broad-based socioeconomic development in a small island state. The non-formal education project which linked university continuing education to community organizing, served to increase human, physical and social capital, as well as enhance community norms and people\u27s capacity to cope in a deteriorating socioeconomic environment. While this intervention was circumscribed by application to a community\u27s immediate context, it does provide clues as to the kinds of intervention required for a fundamental reassessment of policies. The study further argues that non-formal education interventions can be applied to both micro and macro level situations and that their effectiveness in addressing social change depends on their inclusion of political education about macro/micro links and gender conscientization. Such interventions can strengthen advocacy for policies prioritizing human development within a women\u27s human rights framework

Challenges to Sustainability: A Caribbean reflection

Peggy Antrobus is from the Caribbean – living and working in many of the island states. Since 1974, when she served as advisor on Women's Affairs to the government of Jamaica and established their Women's Bureau, she has worked for the advancement of women's rights and development. In 1978 she set up the Women and Development Unit at the University of the West Indies, and is a founding member of many regional and international organizations including the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era and the International Gender and Trade Network. She has contributed chapters and articles to many publications and her book, The Global Women's Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies, was published by Zed Books in 2004.

Disarmament, Peace and Solidarity in the Changing World Order: A woman's vision

Peggy Antrobus1 presents the view that women offer a special vision for development, based on their more ‘textured’ lives caring for families in their productive and reproductive role. She suggests that a link between gender relations and war should be made in order to divert the world a way from destructiveness to responsibility and building a better world for peace. Development (2007) 50, 96–97. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100347

Feminism as Transformational Politics: Towards possibilities for another world

Peggy Antrobus argues that the attacks of September 11th and the response have shed a powerful light on the links between militarism, terrorism, religious extremism – all extreme forms of patriarchy – the abuse of women's lives and the jeopardy to the security of everyone when women's human rights are denied. She explores how our ability to understand these linkages and to take action to challenge the systems and relationships that perpetuate the injustice and violence that lie at the heart of our crises will determine how this story will end, and especially who we become in the process. For her, another world is only possible if we confront the patriarchal roots of our present crises. Development (2002) 45, 46–52. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1110349