Faced with the lack of formal employment, microentrepreneurship is a common activity among women in developing countries. While microentrepreneurship is often seen as a vehicle for these women to “succeed,” the asset structure conditions the degree of “success.” Even when human capital is abundant in many developing countries, other assets need to concur to make microenterprises viable. This is the case of Haiti, a country where women represent 70 percent of the informal market.

Haitian women are often silenced and burdened by the intersectionality of social, economic, and environmental oppressions. In Cap-Haitien, and much of rural Haiti, women and men are bilateral actors. It is estimated that nearly three quarters of the Haitian people reside in rural areas and work (both formally and informally) as peasant farmers. Since the 1950s, the environment in Haiti has been overseen by the Ministry of Environment whose fundamental mission is to reduce environmental vulnerability.

Tous droits réservés. Republié avec l'autorisation du·de la détenteur·rice du droit, Linden Lewis.

Studies on Haitian Vodou have documented its marginalization. In fact, they have tracked down the roots of its erasure - due in parts to the positioning of Haiti within an unleveled diffusion of globalized power, the choices of the Haitian state for declaring Roman Catholicism as the official religion of the country, imposed neoliberal policies, as well as poor economic orientations. Because of these external and internal factors, Haitian Vodou devotees have been forced to explore their spirituality outside of Haiti’s public sphere.