PROFESSOR JOYCELIN MASSIAH
Professor Joycelin Massiah, born in Guyana, citizen of Barbados with several years of service in Jamaica, is a Caribbean Woman whose entire life has been one of service in response to the pressing challenges of the Region. For three decades she has been involved in every aspect of Caribbean society, particularly as it relates to the role of women and their pivotal position in the family.
Professor Massiah received her training in the fields of Economics and Sociology at the University College of the West Indies and then went on to serve the regional University in several distinguished capacities. Her professional career reached its pinnacle when in 1992 she was appointed to her present post of Regional Programme Advisor to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), located in Barbados. She came to this task eminently qualified.
In her illustrious career, she was the first female Head of a Department on the Cave Hill Campus of UWI; the first Caribbean female Professor in the Faculty of Social Science; the first female Director of any of the branches of the Institute of Social and Economic Research; and the first Coordinator of a major programme of research about women in the Region. Her pioneering research work on Women in the Caribbean, published in a two-volume Special Issue of the Social and Economic Research Studies Journal of the ISER has had far reaching effects on Caribbean scholarship in the field of Women in Development and on Women’s Rights activism in the Region.
In addition to her service as a member of the Senate of the University of the West Indies, Professor Massiah has served on other regional and international committees and boards to include the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Research on Women and the Advisory Committee of the Population Council on Family Structure, Female Headship and Poverty.
Under her inspiring leadership, the UNIFEM Caribbean Office was one of the key players collaborating with the CARICOM Secretariat and UN/ECLAC in preparing Caribbean delegations for effective negotiating and lobbying during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Her dynamic input contributed to a successful outcome for the Caribbean and laid the foundation of effective follow-up after Beijing.
Professor Rex Neetleford, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies in assessing Professor Massiah’s contribution said that her work has been dedicated to charting ways, rooted in Caribbean culture, which can serve as a road map to enable us as a people to make our way with dignity and self-esteem into the new Millennium. Professor Massiah sees Education as a Human Right. She understands the importance of our history and culture; that all work is meaningful and uplifting; and that it is only through respect for each other that we can hope to move forward.
It was in recognition of her valuable contribution to development that in 1998 the Government of Barbados bestowed on her that country’s third highest award, the Golden Cross of Merit.
The Caribbean Community now confers on this outstanding daughter of the Region the CARICOM Triennial Award for Women.
