Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Boats arrivingfor market day in Restel, southern Haiti
region. Women dominate Haiti's internal market system. Some
women specialize as market intermediaries, buying and selling
produce and serving as links between local markets and
regional or urban markets. Women with enough capital to be
full-time market traders are often economically independent of
men. An estimated 70 percent of women in the services sector
are employed as servants, especially in Port-au-Prince. In the
assembly industry, more than 50 percent and perhaps as much
as 75 percent of factory workers are women, according to various
estimates.
In rural areas, men and women play complementary roles.
Men assume primary responsibility for farming, especially the
heavy field labor. Women commonly assist in weeding and harvesting.
Women assume primary responsibility for selling
household agricultural produce in local markets. In peasant
farming, the income generated through agricultural production
belongs to both husband and wife. Women may own or
inherit land, but men usually control land transactions and the
primary land base for peasant farming. Women are responsible
for most household tasks, including cooking, laundry, gathering
wood, and carrying water. Haitian families are patriarchal,
but women play a key economic role—ultimately the pivotal
role in day-to-day operations of the household economy.
337