Comparative regional report on citizenship law: Anglophone Caribbean citizenship to their child born abroad when married to a noncitizen.81 All proposed gender equality amendments to the Constitution failed. In the case of Barbados, some organizations such as the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, and the Americas Network on Nationality and Statelessness posit that Barbados discriminates against its female citizens in their ability to pass citizenship on to their children born overseas.82 As this report illustrates, however, Barbados’ gender discriminatory provisions lie in the area of spousal extension of citizenship (male citizens may transfer it to their female noncitizen spouses, but female citizens are not provided the same right), joint adoptions and the inability of a child to acquire citizenship from a deceased mother. In its 2017 report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Barbadian delegate and Minister, Steven Blackett, affirmed that “the Constitution and the policies allowed for Barbadians born overseas, and also their children born overseas, to automatically become citizens. Barbadian women married to foreigners could transmit nationality to their spouse and children. All Barbadians, male and female, automatically transferred their nationality to their children” (UNHRC 2017, no page).83 It is of note that gender inequality is “particularly glaring” throughout the subregion (Barrow-Giles 2015, 58), whether measured by the male-to-female number of elected officials, the number of female-headed households and their poverty level compared to maleheaded households 84 or the pervasive violence against women. With regard to the latter, gender violence is disproportionately high throughout the subregion85 and more than half of the countries in the Anglophone Caribbean have a higher than average per capita rape rate (UNDOC 2007).86 Furthermore, very few have criminalised marital rape87 and fewer than half have a National Strategic Action Plan on Gender Based Violence.88 The socio-political context, therefore, is not highly conducive to women’s equality and, in the case of The Bahamas at least, may translate into the difficulty of establishing gender equality in nationality provisions. 81 Bahamian voters were also asked whether they wanted to allow a child born out of wedlock to a Bahamian father to acquire Bahamian citizenship upon legal proof that the citizen was the father. 82 See, for instance, RED ANA (2020), Harrington (2016), Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (2018). The UNHCR (2018) also states that female Barbadian citizens cannot pass on their citizenship to their children born overseas, while their male counterparts can. See p. 10 of the referenced 2018 report. 83 Note that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) does not list Barbados as a country with gender discriminatory nationality laws in the provision of ius soli citizenship (IOM 2017). 84 With the exception of St. Lucia and Belize, female-headed households in the Anglophone Caribbean have higher poverty rates than male-headed households (note, no data is present for St. Kitts and Nevis). Also, with the exception of Grenada, the other countries of the subregion have less than 20% female representatives in government. See ECLAC 2018, p. 51 (Table 6) and p. 56 (Table 4). 85 See also p. 54 of ECLAC (2018) where they discuss the elevated rate of violence against women and children in the region, as well as the prevalent “patriarchal structural patterns” that limit women’s equality. 86 According to the report, The Bahamas had the highest per capita rape rate in the world (see p. iv and 12). 87 Whether or not a husband can rape his wife is an on-going and contentious issue in The Bahamas, especially. The topic resurfaced earlier this year when Speaker of the House, Halson Moultrie, stated that he thought that a man could not rape his wife when it comes to spiritual law. See Knowles (2020) and Benjamin and LeGrand (2012). 88 Anglophone Caribbean countries that have, or have had, such a Plan include: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and Jamaica (UN Women 2020). 30 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/3 - © 2020 Authors