It was for work that the majority of women as with the majority of men were brought to this region.

This labour was not self-realizing labour but work under virtually non-human conditions which our ancestors through their own efforts sought to humanize. The only housewives in this region for many centuries therefore were the minority of white women plantation owners who accompanied their husbands as most of the Caribbean was not a region of settlement but rather one of extraction.

Despite this history however, there is a strongly held myth that in the past, long ago, long time – women used to stay at home and take care of children. This may have been true of other regions but it definitely was not the case in this one. Yet the ideology that this is as it should be and indeed this is how it was, was strongly perpetuated by colonial domestic ideology through religious institutions, schools, 20th century labour legislation and changes in the sexual division of labour by the mid-20th century.

Although for the majority of women in the early 20th century, earning a living was a normal way of life, many were also breadwinners and providers for their households. As the century progressed they were eventually made to feel that this was something to be ashamed of — i.e. ‘you didn’t have a man to mind you’ or ‘your man couldn’t afford to mind you’. In the case of Indo-Caribbean men, with new attempts to re-establish male patriarchal authority, a secluded wife i.e. one who did not work outside the home was a symbol of higher caste and class status, something which was highly desired and the reason for migration to a new society.

In both these cases we see that men’s status as men was closely related to the situation of their women - the degree to which they were independent, autonomous or not directly under their control. The reality was however that most working-class, Indo-Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean women continued to work in agricultural plots in farming and market gardening or in urban areas as petty traders and service workers.

This situation was compounded by the 1930s with the continuing decline of agriculture and the introduction of mechanisation, which had the effect or removing thousands of women from the workforce and also in the 1930s new labour legislation was passed preventing educated (middle-class) married women from permanent employment in the civil service or as teachers.

It was during periods of disturbances, street protests, and strikes that women would become most visible in the historical records. Indeed in Walter Rodney’s History of the Guyanese Working People the index cites one entry under women – Women – Riots pp.205-207. It was in the reports of the Commissions of Enquiry into these events that women would come alive and jump off the page. In other records and at other times it was more difficult.

From the inception of ‘wage-labour’ in the Caribbean, women workers have attempted to organise. Prior to the 1940s this meant organisation as self-employed, artisans, petty producers, traders as well as the unemployed. As early as 22, July 1844, six hundred workers and small producers, women and men met in Couva in Central Trinidad to form the Trinidad Free-Labourers Society (Ramdin, 1982:123). By the late 19th century labour disturbances occurred throughout the region a response to the economic depression of this period resulting in the 1897 Labour Disturbances Commission. Nigel Bolland reports that in Jamaica on 8, June 1894 “soldiers, joined by women and men of the town attacked two police stations and roughed up the police at Fletcher’s Land and Sutton Street (Bolland, 2001:175). Similarly in St. Georges, Grenada, “Several hundred men and women attacked the police with rocks, sticks and bottles, some were imprisoned for up to three months (Bolland, 2001:177).

In the 1905 disturbances in Guyana, Rodney notes that of the 105 persons convicted in the Georgetown Magistrates Court as a consequence of the 1905 Riots, 41 were female. He surmises that it would well be that at least one in three “rioters” was a woman, a credible reason being the large proportion of women in the city of Georgetown at the time (Rodney, 1981:206). He notes further that in the stevedores strikes of 1905 women domestics took to the streets and even attacked other women who did not support the strike (Rodney, 1982:206).

From the above we can conclude that the majority of women participating in the protests, riots and disturbances of the early 20th century were workers or self-employed traders or artisans. These ranged from workers on sugar estates to domestic workers in urban areas and in the “oilfields”, factory workers, barmaids, store clerks, food packers, seamstresses or dressmakers.

Early Workingmens’ Associations were formed in many parts of the region, comprising mainly male artisans most of whom would have been self-employed.

Even though the cigar makers or tobacco workers comprised a significant number of female workers these women were not the focus of the Union’s concerns (French and Ford-Smith, 1985:260-261). This was just one of a number of different forms through which workers were organized during this period. In Trinidad and Tobago the early Workingmen’s Association was transformed in 1918 into the more radical Trinidad Workingmen’s Association.

Already we see a pattern that was to continue into the 20th century, one of women’s participation in protests, demonstrations and street actions but excluded from the organisations and structures which were to emerge in their aftermath. Indeed in preparation for the 1937 strikes, Tubal Uriah Butler organised a Women’s Committee to prepare meals and deliver them to the strikers. The unfolding of events however were quite different and saw women taking on roles quite different from those anticipated by their labour leader (T&T Archives, Uriah Butler papers cited in Reddock, 2005:29-30).

The labour disturbances and strikes of the early 20th century were part of a wider ferment taking place in the Caribbean region. In Trinidad in 1919, the militant TWA led by Alfred Richards, was involved in what is known as the stevedores strike. This strike involved stevedores, and lightermen who worked on the docks, but according to Jim Barrette, first president of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Union this strike also involved the women coal carriers of the Archer Coaling Company who declared their intention to participate actively in the strike (Ramdin, 1982:57).

Although a minority of the waterfront working population, women were active participants in the street protests and riots that accompanied the strike. Witness statements in the confidential Report into the Conduct of the Constabulary during the Labour Disturbances, suggests that women and their children comprised a large number of those supporting the strike. In five out of six quotations describing the crowd the common characteristics were - that they comprised a “low class of people” and the involvement of women.

Interestingly according to French and Ford-Smith, newspaper reports described the women as being more stubborn than men in demanding and sticking to their claim. In addition, they also sent a delegation to the newspaper to contradict statements made about them (The Gleaner, 20.6.1918 cited in French and Ford-Smith, 1984:265.)

The next period of disturbances, protests and riots of the 1930s however, were most significant in that they contributed to a major change in British colonial policy towards the region. Yet I want to stress that the 1930s was part of a continuous tradition of struggle which lasted for most of the period up to the 1940s with the introduction of ‘responsible trade unionism.’ The predominantly Indian sugar workers in central Trinidad staged the first of the 1930s disturbances in 1934 with Indian women taking a major role in challenging the estate authorities and demanding economic justice. This was followed by protests by workers in Belize where according to Bolland on 29, September 1934 about 300 men and women, armed with sticks, went to the Belize Town Board (Bolland, 1992:265). These were followed by other disturbances in, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and British Guiana in 1935; in St. Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad in 1937, and in Jamaica in 1938. A detailed examination of the labour disturbances of the 1930s as I have done elsewhere reflect a similar situation, a heavy involvement of women in these events but not in the organisational and institutional structures that emerged thereafter (See Reddock.2005: Bolland, 1988:265).

The changes in colonial policy in the aftermath of the 1930s disturbances, and the recommendations of the Commissions of Enquiry such as the West Indian Royal Commission (WIRC) which followed, had the following components: reducing worker militancy through the introduction of ‘responsible trade unionism’; strengthening and introducing new state-sponsored social welfare programmes as a response to the social and economic dislocations taking place; and the re-defining of women as dependent housewives. By emphasising women’s location within ‘the family’ through, for example, the new Women’s Welfare programmes of the Social Welfare Divisions of the colonial governments, they were by extension no longer seen as an integral part of the wage-labouring population and the labour movement (Reddock, 1984).

The broad and more inclusive structures of membership of the early labour organisations, facilitated women’s participation in ways that the more formalised trade unions could not. The Cipriani led Trinidad Workingmen’s Association of the 1920s for example, was organised into occupational sections which included seamstresses, domestics, stevedores, fishermen, labourers, porters clerks and casual and general labourers. In addition there were also regional sections and women’s sections. In other words there were many opportunities for women to become affiliated to the organisation.

Notions of worker at this time incorporated virtually everyone and facilitated large-scale mobilization. At the height of the TWA’s operations in 1927, around the time of this conference there were two women’s sections in Port of Spain – Women’s Section No. 1 led by Eldica Alkins, a Barbadian milliner, The Domestics Section or Women’s Section No. 2, also led by another Barbadian – Albertha Husbands and in 1930 a third Women’s Section was organised by Theresa Ojoe also in Port of Spain.

In September 1929, The Labour Leader, newspaper of the labour movement reported that “owing to the great increase in membership of the California section the female members resolved to work separately and in consequence officers were elected last Sunday for that purpose.” Henrietta Waldron was elected president. In 1934, the San Fernando Women’s Section was started with Mrs L. Wiltshire as president (Reddock,1994:126). The TWA also had a Youth League, Thelma Williams later of the OWTU, recalled her membership as a child. But in addition many of the earliest attempts at union organisation took place in sectors with large female employment such as the store clerks and shop assistants of Port of Spain in the Union of Shop Assistants and Clerks and the Banana carriers and barmaids of Jamaica in the Longshoremen’s Union. As late as the 1940s Daisy Crick, a housewife, was a member of the executive of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union.

In Jamaica, French and Ford-Smith note the conscious efforts of Bain Alves of the Longshoremen’s Union No. 1 and later the Jamaican Federation of Labour to organise women workers in the early 20th century. He organised women banana carriers, coal carriers, tramway and railway workers, storemen, and predominantly female hotel workers and barmaids initially through the longshoremen’s Union. By the 1920s women workers were most likely a large proportion of the members of the banana carriers, coal carriers and the Barmen, Barmaid and Hotel Workers Unions which formed part of the Jamaican Federation of Labour which he registered in 1922 some meetings were organised after 9.00 p.m. in order to accommodate the late working hours of the barmaids. (French and Ford-Smith, 1985:271).

But women workers were not only the beneficiaries of male labour organisers, some contributed in their own right to the building of labour organisations. In Trinidad and Tobago I have identified Helena Manuel and Elma Francois but I am sure that similar women existed in other territories. What is interesting though is that none of these women was mainstream enough or important enough to be invited to the 1926 conference.

Few middle or upper class women could afford to be identified with the indignities of the labour movement and its street activity. Middle class and more educated women of this period were limited mainly to social work which was important as the state was not contributing in this area, and which was considered more befitting of a lady. There were some exceptions however, for example Beatrice Greig, a white women’s movement activist was a member of the TWA and active in its operations (Reddock, 1994).

Helena Manuel, for example, in 1928, broke away from Cipriani’s TWA to form the Trinidad Cocoa Planters and Labouring Classes Association. Her attempts to have it affiliated to the International Federation of Trade Unions failed as she had to go through the national body – Cipriani’s TWA. In 1929, together with Hubert Carrington she formed the Trinidad and Tobago National Trade Union Centre, an umbrella union including all types of labourers (Ramdin, 1982:72). In 1930 it had 2,000 members primarily workers involved in transport (Lewis, 1977: 27).

Similarly Elma Francois, a Vincentian domestic also broke away from Cipriani’s TWA and together with Jim Barrette, Christina King, Bertie Percival, Jim Headley and others formed first the national Unemployed Movement in early 1934 which morphed into the Negro Welfare Cultural and Social Association, a Marxist oriented organisation at the end of 1934. Her organisation working among the poor and working class in urban Port of Spain, rural central Trinidad and in industrial South Trinidad and despite its name, worked among both the predominantly African urban workers and the Indian workers on the estates of central Trinidad.

The NWCSA was responsible for the formation of three of the trade unions of the 1930s and 1940s two of which continue to exist today. These are the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union, the Public Works and Public Service Workers Union and the Federated Workers Union now part of the National Government and Federated Workers Union.

In the 1980s, The Project for the Development of Caribbean Women in Trade Unions (1982-1985) sought to develop skills and knowledge of communication, negotiation and collective bargaining, labour history, sociology and the economy. By the end of the project in 1984 according to Bolles (2005) 16,000 women had taken part in national and regional seminars which had taken place in The Bahamas, St. Kitts, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Barbados (Bolles, 2005:93).

Bolles suggests that since the 1990s, many women trade unionists have become presidents, general secretaries, deputy general secretaries, heads of departments and heads of labour institutions and the International Labour Organisation has a strong commitment to gender equity (Bolles, 2005:93). It should be noted that in Trinidad and Tobago, for example that Ursula Gittens served as president of the Civil Service Association and Jennifer Baptiste now serves as president of its successor organisation – the Public Services Association. Yet it is true to say that the Caribbean labour movement is still securely under the control of a male leadership and reflects many of the class, gender and race and ethnic contradictions of our region. The culture, traditions and of the movement continues to be very masculine and indeed many issues of special concern to women members, with few exceptions, still receive limited attention.

In her 1985 research paper for the Cipriani Labour College, entitled “Women in Trade Unions: A comparative survey in Trinidad and Tobago,” Jennifer Baptiste, now president of the Public Service Association revealed that the low level of female leadership within the unions in Trinidad and Tobago was due to the general effect of the male dominated society and a lack of self confidence and assertiveness among women (Baptiste, 1985).

But while attempts to increase women’s leadership in traditional labour organizations continues to be elusive, we must be aware of alternative and innovative forms of labour organisation and labour movement work, which have emerged in the region which have perhaps been ignored by the mainstream movement. For it is not enough simply to have women as leaders we also need to be open to the new approaches, insights and issues that they may bring to the fore. One example of this is the National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE) of Trinidad and Tobago and I am sure that there are other examples in the region. From its inception in 1983, the National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE) has shown its dynamism, adaptability and responsiveness to change both locally and internationally. It’s President, Clotil Walcott and General Secretary Ida Le Blanc are part of the first and only all female executive of a trade union.

Since its inception NUDE has waged successful campaigns for legislation to improve the status of domestic and other low-wage workers and has been at the forefront of the campaign for increases to the minimum wage and for amendments to the Minimum Wage Act. In 1990, NUDE became the local representative of the International Wages for Housework Campaign. In 1995 the Unremunerated Work Act was passed in parliament making Trinidad and Tobago one of the few countries in the world to pass such legislation. The language of this Act was used as a model for deliberations at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing China in 1995 and inclusion in the Platform for Action approved by delegates. In 2005, for the first time, the Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical office began making available data collected on unremunerated work (Reddock, 2005b).

The women’s movement has been one of the more resilient movements to survive the radical period of the 1970s. In my opinion it has survived because of its innovative and creative approaches and its continuous search for greater and greater democracy although it is now facing a serious backlash from those opposed to its fundamental challenges to the status quo. Maybe it is time for a closer collaboration between these two important social movements. In so doing mainstream trade unions must be willing to substantially transform themselves, to re-think accepted modes of doing things encouraging an open climate of innovation, creativity, critical thinking, and dialogue with other social movements. In this context I would like to propose the following actions:

• The re-thinking of notions of membership beyond the traditional categories of ‘wage-labour’;
• The development of a regional research project documenting the history of women and the labour movement in the region;
• The development of a comprehensive communications campaign to bring the interests and ideas of the movement to a wider audience including young women and young men;
• The broadening of the range of issues addressed by the movement to include for example issues related to reconciling work with family and gender related issues;
• Introducing more creative modalities of operation beyond collective bargaining;
• A review of Human Resource Management curricula in regional educational institutions, making recommendations for the inclusion of labour movement and industrial issues;
• The introduction of gender studies into the regional labour education institutions;
• The introduction of special short courses aimed at introducing gender analysis training to trade unionists.

These proposals I suggest could provide a framework to strengthen and renew the movement in order to confront the many global and local challenges that it now faces.