Women in Haiti have equal constitutional [2] rights as men in the economic , political , cultural and social fields, as well as in the family. However, the reality in Haiti is quite far from the law: "political, economic and social features of Haiti negatively affect most Haitians, but Haitian women experience additional barriers to the full enjoyment of their basic rights due to predominant social beliefs that they are inferior to men and a historical pattern of discrimination and violence against them based on their sex.
Discrimination against women is a structural feature in Haitian society and culture that has subsisted throughout its history, both in times of peace and unrest. Some Haitian scholars argue that Haitian peasant women are often less restricted socially than women in Western societies or even in comparison to more westernized elite Haitian women.
The sexual equality inherent to Haitian vodou translates into the inclusion of women in all aspects of society. The Haitian government contains a Ministry of Women's Affairs, but it also lacks the resources to address issues such as violence against women and harassment in the workplace. A number of political figures such as Michele Pierre-Louis , Haiti's second female Prime Minister, have adopted a determined agenda in order to fight inequalities and persecutions against women.
Women have been involved in social movements in Haiti since the battle for independence even if History does not recall their names [10] [11]. A women's movement emerged in Haiti in the s during an economic crisis which is thought to have forced some middle-class Haitian women to work outside the home for the first time unlike peasant women who had always done so.
In , writer and feminist Paulette Poujol-Oriol joined the league. She later served as President of the League from until her death on March 11, She was also a founding member of L'Alliance des Femmes Haitiennes , an umbrella organization for more than 50 women's groups. Women in Haiti may suffer threats to their security and well-being because of rape, kidnapping and human trafficking. Women suffer the most from Haiti's chronic political instability. Reports from women's rights groups in Haiti revealed that women were targeted for abuse in ways and for reasons that men were not.
