Soaiba Fatima on Faye Harrison's "A View From Jamaica"

In Faye Harrison's essay on The Gendered Politics and Violence of Structural Adjustment: A View from Jamaica, she regales the story of Beulah Brown to show how the declining economical state of Jamaica greatly impacted poor urban women in a negative way. Beulah Brown's story shows how despite facing countless obstacles, women still strove to improve conditions for themselves, as well as for their community.

Harrison describes the several jobs Brown worked, including as a factory worker, a caretaker, a seamstress, baker, and more; some of these jobs she did at the same time. Her hectic day shows that Jamaica's economic crisis forced people, especially women with families to care for, to take on multiple responsibilities. No matter how tense the situation got, Brown fought against simply migrating to a different country with better opportunities, choosing instead to stay in her country and work to make Jamaica better for those who could not migrate.
This passage really inspired me because, throughout the course, I have learned and seen so much of the evil that happens in the world, and although there are solutions, they often seem far off and unlikely to be fruitful. However, the story of Beulah Brown showed me that despite the struggles women face, no matter how difficult a situation gets, there is always hope because women are unbelievably strong and able to fight for what they believe in. Despite the intense struggle to even survive in Jamaican economy, women like Beulah Brown still did what they could to help themselves and their communities.

The story of Beulah Browns story reminded me of another inspiring woman, Malala Yousafzai. Although her struggles were for education rather than the economy, the story of a girl who stood up to the authorities and demanded an education from all females is incredibly inspiring, and also brings light into a world that seems bleak and overloaded with feminist issues. Even after getting access to the education she demanded, Malala continues to fight for female education, and has even started a fund called the Malala Fund to help girls go to school. The website for this fund, https://www.malala.org, not only allows people to donate money, but it is also full of many inspiring stories of strong women and girls, which helps motivate and bring hope into an otherwise dark situation. By joining her efforts, people can help girls get an education that will help them to later help others, the way both Beulah Brown and Malala Yousafzai did.

In class, I'd like to discuss the importance of sharing inspiring stories of strong women in classes about global feminism, because I feel that these stories are just as important to learn about as the struggles and issues we learn about.