Dr. Violet Eudine Barriteau, Professor of Gender and Public Policy and Deputy Principal of the UWI, Cave Hill Campus will receive the 10th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Triennial Award for Women for her remarkable contribution to the field of gender and development and her role as “a powerful exemplar of self-respect, self-discipline, vision and leadership.” She will be presented with the Award at the Opening Ceremony of the 22nd Meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotiations in St Kitts and Nevis, on Thursday, June 30, 2011.
 
The Triennial Award for Women was introduced in 1983 to recognize and honour Caribbean women who have made significant contributions to socio-economic development at the national and regional levels.
 
A strong advocate of gender and development, she has made phenomenal contribution to the advancement of women’s empowerment and gender equality, through her advocacy, teaching, research and publications.
 
Professor Barriteau is the author of The Political Economy of Gender in the Twentieth Century Caribbean published by Palgrave International, and won the University of the West Indies inaugural best selling text book prize for the edited work Confronting Power Theorizing Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in the Caribbean.  She has co-edited three other publications as well as published eighteen chapters in books and ten articles in peer reviewed journals.
Professor Barriteau was the first Head of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit and the first woman at the University of the West Indies to be appointed Campus Coordinator, School for Graduate Studies and Research, a position she held for four years. She later became Deputy Principal at the Cave Hill Campus. Additionally, Professor Barriteau is currently President Elect of the International Association for Feminist Economics.
 
Professor Barriteau’s research interests encompass feminist theorizing, gender and public policy and investigations of the Caribbean political economy from the perspective of gender.
 
Dr. Barriteau’s award puts her in the ranks of nine select Caribbean women who have made significant contributions at the national and regional level in various fields of endeavours. Previous awardees included:  Ms. Nesta Patrick, national of Trinidad and Tobago, who was the first recipient in 1984, the late Dame Nita Barrow, national of Barbados in 1987, Dr. Peggy Antrobus, national of Grenada and citizen of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 1990; Ms. Magda Pollard, national of Guyana, 1993; the late Dr. Lucille Mair, national of Jamaica and UWI, Mona faculty, 1996 ; Professor Joycelin Massiah, national of Guyana and citizen of Barbados, 1999; Professor Rhoda Reddock, national of Trinidad and Tobago, 2002, Justice Desiree Bernard, national of Guyana in 2005 and Dr. Barbara Bailey and  former Professor at UWI, Mona, Jamaica, in 2008.
(Sources: Cave Hill website and ZIZ Online)