Between feminism and partisanship: the rise and decline of the women’s movement in Belize, 1975–1993

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the historical trajectory of the women’s movement in Belize, focusing on a critical period (1975–1993). We draw upon original sources from archival research coupled with interviews with Belizean women to interpret the rise and decline of the women’s movement. The movement in Belize emerged in the late 1970s and peaked during the 1980s. At the height of the movement, female-led NGOs organized women across Belize with the goal of empowering women to better their communities and living conditions. Yet the outcomes of the movement dissipated in the 1990s. We interpret the vicissitudes of the movement against the backdrop of divisions generated during the years surrounding political independence (achieved in 1981). As Belize’s struggle for independence from British colonialism reached its denouement in 1979–1981, the concerns of Belizean women came into public consciousness shaped by the U.N. Decade for Women, Cold War politics, and the politics of decolonization. These sparked a women’s movement in the 1980s, albeit in a fashion that could not be sustained into the 1990s, an era of NGOs, neoliberalism, and clientelism.