Linnette Vassell is part of that generation of
women who are associated with the struggle for women’s
rights in the region since the 1970s. She was the first
Coordinator of the Committee of Women for Progress,(CWP)
a left wing activist organisation formed in 1976 which was
among the pioneering organisations for the struggle for
Maternity Leave with Pay for women. She is Chairperson of
the twenty year old Women’s Resource and Outreach
Centre serving women and their families in the Greenwich/Lyndhurst
area and is active in the Coalition for Community Participation
in Governance which focuses on community action around water,
sanitation and hygiene in the context of promoting community
co-management in governance. She is also a member of Caribbean
Association for Feminist Research and Action and of Gender
and Water Alliance, a global network of organizations and
of the Board of the Small Business Association of Jamaica.
A graduate of the UWI where she studied history and from the 1980s
into the 1990s, and taught Caribbean ,including women’s
history, her M.Phil thesis explored Voluntary Women’s Associations
in Jamaica: The Jamaica Federation of Women, 1944-1962. Linnette
is the presenter of the course- Gender, Political Activism and
Mobilisation in the MSc in Gender Studies programme of the Centre
for Gender and Development Studies and prepared and presented
the module – Women Organising and the Development of the
Women’s Movement in the Caribbean in the CGDS’ Certificate
Programme in Gender and Development Studies.
Her publications include: "Power, Governance
and the Structure of Opportunity for Women in Decision-Making
in Jamaica" in The Construction of Gender Development Indicators
for Jamaica. (Editor Patricia Mohammed). PIOJ/UNDP/CIDA, Kingston,
Jamaica, 2000; “Colonial Gender Policy in Jamaica, 1865-1944”,
in Before and After 1865: Education, Politics and Regionalism
in the Caribbean, Brian Moore & Swithin Wilmot (editors):
Kingston, Jamaica, Ian Randle Publishers, 1998; “Women of
the Masses: Daphne Campbell and `Left’ Politics in Jamaica
in the 1950s”, Engendering History, Shepherd, Brereton &
Bailey (Editors), Kingston, Ian Randle, Publishers, 1995 and Voices
of Women in Jamaica 1898-1939- (Compilation of Writings and Speeches
of Women), Dept. of History, 1993.
Linnette has worked in the Jamaica Public service
in the area of social development and as a Social Development
Consultant and is currently the Community Development and Gender
Specialist on the Government of Jamaica/IDB Rural Water and Sanitation
Project.
Abstract:
“Feminisms,
Gender Studies, Activism: The Elusive Triad”
