Women in the Development of Trinidad and Tobago

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“Women have played a crucial role in the development of Trinidad and Tobago.” This statement is very true. Before we can discuss the women who have brought great accomplishments to our country in modern times we need to look at the women who started us off. These women are the indigenous women, European women in Pre-emancipation period, enslaved women, free women of colour and the immigrant women. In the early days women were barely written about because the main focus was said to be on the issues of colonialism, government, diplomacy, religion, trade and warfare and men were more interactive in these events than women. It was said that women issues were not important enough to be included into history books. It was not until later that historians decided that Caribbean women should be seen in a positive light and this began the emergence of women in the recording of history. Firstly the indigenous women were important to the development of our Caribbean through our economy and society. Not only were they important to the society but they were the care-takers of the house. They were industrious and resourceful. Industrious simply means that they are hard-working, devoted, diligent people while resourceful is when you are able to deal skilfully and promptly with new situations and difficulties. Indigenous women can be definitely be categorized there. In the society which they lived the men were the ones to play the industrial role while the women played the expressive role. The industrial role is where you go out and make the money and be the bread-winners of the house whereas the expressive role is to take care of the home, children, cook and clean. The indigenous women were not only playing the expressive role but they also did work that the Europeans did not regard as ‘feminine”. Woman pounded corn using pestles and mortars made of stone. They press cassava to

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