1934 to 1937 · Haitianspan
Two constitutional conventions pass and women's legal status does not move
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Madeleine Sylvain, Alice Garoute and Thérèse Hudicourt had spent the occupation years raising money, organising and marching alongside the nationalists who wanted the Americans out. They knew Sténio Vincent personally. They had helped pay for the delegation that carried the case for Haitian sovereignty to Washington, and they had built the international standing of the men who made that case. When the occupation ended they expected the new legal order to record what women had done to earn it. It did not. The 1930s brought two constitutional conventions and a long run of chances to alter the legal position of Haitian women, and each one closed with nothing gained or with ground lost. In June 1935, a year after the last marines sailed, Vincent put a referendum to the country that extended his own term and let him succeed himself. His powers grew considerably. The constitutional standing of Haitian women stayed where the French code had left it.
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