In popular discourse, the Haitian woman is considered as the central pillar of society, the concept poto mitan used to designate them testify to this. The discourse around the poto mitan woman is akin to a mark of recognition of their contribution to society, to the country's economy, even to an implicit standard to value “a good Haitian woman”. The  poto mitan woman is a hardworking woman who takes care of her family, who usually sacrifices herself for the common good. The poto mitan woman is supposed to be a courageous and hard worker. Even if women are considered the central pillar because they carry society on their shoulders, in their experience as women, they do not benefit from the same privileges as men. They are confronted more than men with structural violence, poverty, lack of education, invisibility in political spaces and suffer from the patriarchal domination of men.    There are many paradoxes in the way Haitian women experience and are perceived in their gender identity. On the one hand, the image of the valiant woman poto mitan on which the family and the national economy rest is valued, and the identity of the Haitian woman is modeled on it. On the other hand, paradoxically far from being in a just and equitable gender social relationship with their male counterpart, they are prey to the subjugation, exploitation and domination specific to patriarchy. This intriguing paradox raises a question : how can a society that values the valiant, courageous and resistant image of the Haitian woman who is supposed to be the pillar of society maintain this same social category in a gender relationship of subordination?    It is important to keep in mind that gender is not only socially constructed but also historically (Oyěwùmí, 2011) because to understand this question, it is necessary to explore the historical and colonial construction of gender in Haiti. In this paper, I will discuss how the above paradox is a colonial heritage that results from the modern and colonial gender system (Lugones, 2010, 2010). This colonial system creates an oppressive logic of colonial modernity, based on hierarchical dichotomies and new colonial categories. On the one hand, this oppressive colonial logic internalized by colonized men has led to the reproduction of Western patriarchy in colonized groups. On the other hand, a differential construction of gender without any of the privileges that were granted to white women was created for colonized women. As Lugones related “Historically, the characterization of white European women as fragile and sexually passive pitted them against non-white colonized women, including enslaved women, who were portrayed along a spectrum of sexual aggression and perversion, as strong enough to do any type of work” (Lugones, 2019, p.75). The paradox of the poto mitan woman results from the colonial construction of gender in formerly colonized communities.