The Coterie of Social Workers is a women's organization, established in 1921 in Trinidad and Tobago, British West Indies to engage in empowering women as well as providing benevolent assistance to the poor and disadvantaged. It was the first organization to target for membership, middle-class women of colour and focus on the needs of working class women, regardless of their marital status and was the leading women's organization in the country from its establishment through the 1940s. Though it has branches throughout the country, its headquarters is located at 3 Longden Street in Port of Spain.
History
editIn 1921, Audrey Jeffers, an educated, middle-class Afro-Trinidiadian teacher recognized that the needs of her students were far greater than education. She founded the Coterie of Social Workers in Port of Spain to help with their health and welfare needs.[1] Prior to forming the organisation, assistance to the disadvantaged was provided solely by upper-class white and coloured women and focused mainly toward assisting women to become better wives.[2] Jeffers believed the focus of assistance should be on working class women and their children, regardless of their marital status,[3] and she recruited like minded women to engage in the work of the Coterie.[1] The organisation was headquartered in Briarsend, at the end of Briar Street in the Saint Clair district, and held fundraising events to raise money for improvement projects. In 1926, they opened a school lunch program in Newtown, which provided free meals and became known as the "Breakfast Shed". Quickly the need for providing nutritious meals spread and other sheds were established. By 1934, there were locations in Barataria, on Edward Street in the center of Port of Spain, in San Fernando, Siparia and on Tobago.[4]
The Coterie continued expanding services to assist the less advantaged and raise the status of middle class women of colour, but focused primarily on black women.[5] One of the few exceptions was Afro- and Indo-Trinidadian, social worker and Coterie member, Gema Ramkeesoon, who campaigned for cooperation among various ethnic groups, as well as against shadism.[6][7] In addition to providing homes for the blind and elderly,[8] the Coterie pressed for higher education for girls and employment opportunities for middle class women. They sought reform of laws to address illegitimacy and alimony, and pressed to change laws which barred women from participating in governmental boards and councils, or serving as jurors.[5] The Coterie would be the leading women's rights organization for middle-class women in Trinidad and Tobago from the 1920s to the 1940s.[9]
In 1936, the Coterie hosted a conference in Port of Spain and invited social workers from throughout the British West Indies and British Guiana. Marking the 15th anniversary of the Coterie, the conference held from 30 April to 10 May, aimed to promote regional cooperation between women involved in social welfare projects to improve educational, social and political spheres for women.[10] The same year that this conference occurred, the government was taking steps to limit women's roles, passing legislation in Trinidad to ban married women as teachers. A few years later, they barred women from working at night, in an attempt to curtail them from being away from their primary duty of caring for their children.[11] At the conference, women such as Jeffers, Beatrice Greig, Jessie Masson, and Gertie Wood spoke about women's intellectual capacity, their subordination and suppression, and the need for women to become educated and press for their right to be included in social and political structures.[12] The conference was notable in that it did not allow men to speak throughout the majority of the sessions[10][13] and that Jeffers emphasized that the government was failing in its obligation to address the needs of citizens.[1]
At the conclusion of the conference the public opinion was mixed, with some sectors understanding the problem of unequal policies for men and women, while others blamed women for their lack of action to improve their situation.[14] The conference, however, marked a turning point.[15] Following the conference, Jeffers ran for a seat on the Port of Spain City Council and won the first seat ever awarded to a woman in the country.[5][16] The following year in Jamaica, Amy Bailey and Mary Morris Knibb formed the Women's Liberal Club, along the lines of the Coterie, which focused on improving socio-economic and political status for middle class women of colour.[15] In 1938, the Coterie submitted a response to the West India Royal Commission enquiry calling for reform of education systems which did not allow girls to compete for Island Scholarships, did not provide vocational training, had no adult education programs to train women, and did not provide nursery schools, among other issues. They also pointed out the need for measures to prevent employment discrimination on the basis of color and gender, to facilitate forming of trade unions to protect women and girls, the need for women police officers to deal with women offenders and reform of child support laws.[17]
In 1940, the Coterie opened its first day nursery, called Cipriani House, in Laventille [4] and In the 1940s and 1950s, working with the Child Welfare League, the Day Nursery Association, the League of Women Voters and the Union of Women Citizens, the Coterie instigated the establishment of National Health Centers. Attending government meetings, Parliament sessions and lectures from health professionals, the women pressed to have health services available throughout Trinidad and Tobago.[18]
Present
editThe organisational headquarters is now located at 3 Longden Street in Port of Spain and celebrated its 85th year of operation in 2007[19] at which time, complaints surfaced that the house at 22 Sweet Briar Road, the original site of the Coterie, was in disrepair.[20][21] It was restored and is now a Cultural Heritage Site.[20][22] The organization continues to provide food through its meal centers, located throughout the island.[23]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ a b c Rappaport 2001, p. 335.
- ^ Reddock 1995, pp. 103–104.
- ^ Reddock 1995, p. 104.
- ^ a b Pemberton et al. 2018, p. 192.
- ^ a b c Shirley 2014, p. 21.
- ^ Tate 2017, p. 11.
- ^ Reddock 2014b, p. 70.
- ^ Ramkeesoon 1999, p. 1.
- ^ Reddock 2014a, p. 3.
- ^ a b Reddock 1995, p. 111.
- ^ Minto-Coy & Berman 2015, p. 426.
- ^ Reddock 1995, pp. 111–113.
- ^ Mohammed & Shepherd 1999, p. 65.
- ^ Reddock 1995, p. 115.
- ^ a b Mohammed & Shepherd 1999, p. 66.
- ^ Reddock 1995, p. 118.
- ^ Reddock 1995, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Patrick 1999, p. 4.
- ^ Pidduck 2007.
- ^ a b Lu 2015.
- ^ Lara 2007.
- ^ National Trust 2016.
- ^ The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian 2016.
Bibliography
edit- Lara, Malissa (28 February 2007). "Audrey Jeffers' relatives upset over changes to her former home". Port of Spain, Trinidad: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- Lu, Josh (16 July 2015). "The Restoration of Briarend House". Medium.com. Phoenix, Arizona. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- Minto-Coy, Indianna D.; Berman, Evan (2015). Public Administration and Policy in the Caribbean. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4398-9298-5.
- Mohammed, Patricia; Shepherd, Catherine (1999). Gender in Caribbean Development: Papers Presented at the Inaugural Seminar of the University of the West Indies, Women and Development Studies Project. Kingston, Jamaica: Canoe Press University of the West Indies. ISBN 978-976-8125-55-2.
- Patrick, Nesta (June 1999). "My Views on Women's Involvement in Organizations in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean" (PDF). OPReP Newsletter (37). St. Augustine, Trinidad: University of the West Indies: 3–5. ISSN 1013-1531. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- Pemberton, Rita; McCollin, Debbie; Matthews, Gelien; Toussaint, Michael (2018). Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago (New ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5381-1146-8.
- Pidduck, Angela (14 January 2007). "Coterie of Social Workers is 85 years old". Port of Spain, Trinidad: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- Rappaport, Helen (2001). Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers. Vol. I: A-L. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-101-4.
- Ramkeesoon, Gema (June 1999). "Early Women's Organizations in Trinidad: 1920s to 1950s" (PDF). OPReP Newsletter (37). St. Augustine, Trinidad: University of the West Indies: 1–2. ISSN 1013-1531. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- Reddock, Rhoda (July 2014a). "Reviews: Basil A. Reid (ed.), Caribbean Heritage. Mona, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2012. ISBN 978-976-640-264-8. (CLOTH), 404 pp". History in Action. 4 (1). St. Augustine, Trinidad: University of the West Indies: 1–5. ISSN 2221-7886. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- Reddock, Rhoda (1995). "The Early Women's Movement in Trinidad and Tobago, 1900-1937". In Wieringa, Saskia (ed.). Subversive Women: Historical Experiences of Gender and Resistance. London, England: Zed Books. pp. 101–120. ISBN 978-1-85649-318-5.
- Reddock, Rhoda (September 2014b). "The first Mrs Garvey: Pan-Africanism and feminism in the early 20th century British colonial Caribbean" (PDF). Feminist Africa (19). Cape Town, South Africa: African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town: 58–77. ISSN 1726-4596. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- Shirley, Beverly (2014). "Crossing Over the Barriers: A Historical Journey of Women's Political Leadership in the Anglophone Caribbean". In Hosein, Gabrielle Jamela; Parpart, Jane (eds.). Politics, Power and Gender Justice in the Anglophone Caribbean: Women's Understandings of Politics, Experiences of Political Contestation and the Possibilities for Gender Transformation (PDF) (Report). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: International Development Research Centre. IDRC Research Report 106430-001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2017.
- Tate, Shirley Anne (2017). The Governmentality of Black Beauty Shame: Discourse, Iconicity and Resistance. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-137-52258-0.
- "Audrey Jeffer's House". National Trust TT. Port of Spain, Trinidad: National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago. 14 January 2016. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- "South Coterie of Social Workers receives new oven". Port of Spain, Trinidad: The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. 15 September 2016. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2018.