Dr Irvika Francois is a Haitian educator and feminist. She was born and raised in Haiti, in a household which she describes as “intentionally gender-equal and non-discriminatory” even in the area of toys and house chores. She was inspired to call herself a feminist at age 15 after observing how lack of education and unequal home finances leads to a lifelong chain of financial inequality in the lives of girls and women in Haiti.
Education
Her desire to improve the lives of girls through education made her sideline her once held dream of becoming a medical personnel to pursue a career in education. She obtained her degree in Education from Universite Quisqueya. She has Masters’ degrees in Applied Linguistics and Distance Education from Sophia University and Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle respectively. The recipient of two prestigious scholarships, the Monbukagakusho and the Fulbright Scholarship, Irvika is interested in bilingualism and language acquisition in a situation of diglossia, technology for education and development, and special education for the handicapped. She completed her Doctorate degree in the University of Florida in 2012.
Career
Irvika Francois has had a robust career as an educator. She has organized adult literacy classes for low-income workers, worked as a teacher in language arts for twenty-three years, and is currently the Chief Technology Officer at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Haiti. She is also the president of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Haiti, an influential international network of business and professional women from nearly a hundred countries across five continents.
Personal Life
Irvika Francois is a single mother to a boy whom she hopes to one day raise to be a feminist. In July 2021, she was featured on the We Are Not Crazy, You Are podcast.