Dwaine Plaza

Transnational grannies : The changing family responsibilities of elderly African Caribbean-born women resident in Britain

This paper explores the role and position of grandmothers in African-Caribbean families resident in Britain. The data used for this paper comes fromm a sample of 180 life-history interviews collected in 1995–1996 from three generations of Caribbean-origin people living in Britain and the Caribbean. Findings from this research suggest that African-Caribbean grandmothers resident in Britain have come to play a less active role within their immediate family compared to earlier historical periods. At the same time however, these grandmothers have come to take on a more a transnational emissary role for their family and kin located throughout North America and Europe. Caribbean-born grandmothers appear to be using more “modern” means for fulfilling certain traditional tasks like “child shifting”, “story telling” or acting as a “social safety net“. Using their agency African Caribbean-born grandmothers have been able to carve out new niches for themselves despite changes in family structure brought about by migration and settlement patterns in Britain.

Disaggregating The Indo- and African-Caribbean Migration and Settlement Experience in Canada

Abstract Using the 1996 Public Use Microfiche files of the Canadian Census and life story data from 30 cases collected from a 1998 CERIS-funded research project, this article disaggregates the migration and settlement story for Indo- and African-Caribbean migrants living in Canada. Findings from this research suggest that a significant difference exists in the immigration pattern, living arrangements, family structures, and material values for Indo- and African- Caribbeans resident in Canada. Much of the previous research has neglected this significant heterogeneity within the Caribbean immigrant community in Canada. As a result, Caribbean migration to Canada since the late 1960s tends to only be known from an African-Caribbean perspective.

STEM Women Faculty Struggling for Recognition and Advancement in a “Men’s Club” Culture

Despite having made a number of positive steps to advance diversity and provide support for women scientist in the past ten years, STEM research institutions continue to be an environment where women faculty face a kind of “patriarchal DNA” that treats women scientists as subordinate to men. An environment continues to exist where women faculty often feel unwelcome, and unsatisfied with the rate of their accomplishments. At the time of promotion and tenure women can feel a sense of betrayal as their work is evaluated as being “less than” the work of men. To be successful in a derisive environment, many STEM women faculty report that they have developed coping strategies to adapt to a culture that often excludes them from occupying senior leadership roles, diminishes their accomplishments, and makes them feel remorseful for trying to find a work–life balance.