Sonia Magdalena Cuales (October 3, 1941 – July 14, 2018) was a

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

activist and writer. Her work in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

system and with various advocacy groups focused on the intersection of women's rights and development across the Caribbean.

Career

Sonia Cuales was born in Curaçao in 1941. She immigrated to the Netherlands, where she studied anthropology and development sociology at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

, obtaining a PhD in non-Western sociology. Through her studies at Leiden, she conducted research on women laborers in Latin America and the Caribbean, and on the role of Jews in the historical development of Curaçao. She became involved in the Antillian Women’s Organizations in the Netherlands during her years living there. Cuales returned to the Americas in the 1970s, and she became an active participant in the Caribbean's second-wave feminist movement. She helped found the

Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) is a nongovernmental organization that advocates for women's rights and empowerment in the Caribbean. The regional network, which serves as an umbrella organization for progressive ...

(CAFRA) in 1985. She was also a founding member of the Caribbean Network on Studies of Masculinities in 1997 and helped support the launching of the Annual Female Leadership Conferences in Curaçao in 2004. In part through

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is a transnational feminist network of scholars, researchers and activists from the global South. DAWN works under the gender, ecology and economic justice (GEEJ) framework, which highlights ...

(DAWN), she was also involved in advocacy on reproductive rights. She worked in Colombia as a project officer for

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

's Regional Office in Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing the organization's assistance to Guyana and Suriname. She was then assigned to the

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ECLAC, UNECLAC or in Spanish and Portuguese CEPAL, is a United Nations regional commission to encourage economic cooperation. ECLAC includes 46 member States (2 ...

, working in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

as a social affairs officer focusing on women and development. She also worked on poverty eradication efforts. After 18 years in the United Nations system, Cuales retired in 2001. In addition to her U.N. work, Cuales lectured on women's studies at the University of the Netherlands Antilles, now the

University of Curaçao The Dr. Moises Frumencio da Costa Gomez University of Curaçao, formerly University of The Netherlands Antilles (UNA; nl, Universiteit van de Nederlandse Antillen), is the state university of Curaçao. It is a public university, graduating appro ...

Writing

Cuales authored various academic articles on women and feminism in the Caribbean. She had an early interest in

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, and she wrote frequently on the intersection of class and gender. She contributed to the 1984 anthology ''

Sisterhood Is Global ''Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology'' is a 1984 anthology of Feminism, feminist writings edited by Robin Morgan, published by Doubleday (publisher), Anchor Press/Doubleday. It is the follow-up to ''Sisterhood Is Pow ...

'', writing on feminism in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

Personal life and recognition

Sonia Cuales had one daughter, Gladys Cuales. She died in Curaçao in 2018. In 2020, she was honored as that year's Outstanding Woman during the 17th Annual Female Leadership Conference in Curaçao.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuales, Sonia 1941 births 2018 deaths Feminist writers Curaçao writers Academic staff of the University of Curaçao Curaçao women writers United Nations officials Leiden University alumni