The twentieth century saw a wide range of struggles for women’s empowerment and equality in Haiti. In this excerpt, Carolle Charles focuses on the politicization and the consequent victimization of Haitian women under Duvalier. Exploring the phenomena of indiscriminate violence and repression as generative of political being, Charles unpacks the means by which the Duvalierist state ironically transformed women into more politicized, albeit more vulnerable, citizens.

This interview between Chantelle F. Verna and Paulette Poujol Oriol discusses the history of Haiti’s first feminist group The Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale and the past and ongoing struggles women have had to face. Poujol Oriol shared her understanding of Ligue’s significance for the evolution of women’s rights in Haiti and her recollections about the group’s major accomplishments. When describing this history, she spoke of moments that made her proud as well as those that left her frustrated.