This study centers on the history of Antigua and Barbuda, emphasizing the links between labor organization, political leadership, and gender exclusion from World War I period to up to the acquisition of autonomous political rights in the 1970's. At the heart of this study is the critical role of gender in the development of trade unionism. Trade unions developed during the transition from colony to nation in the eastern Caribbean. Despite scholarly neglect and exclusion of the contribution of women to labor and working class struggles, this study argues that women through their labor occupation and demographic position had a significant impact in the region's economy and society. Despite the absence of written evidence of women's roles in the economy and society, oral sources, interviews with men and women of the island, have provided crucial evidence of their extensive participation in the cotton and sugar plantations, as well as in labor protests. An organized working class in Antigua emerged only after the legalization of trade unions in 1940.

Methodology. Oral sources, interviews conducted with individuals born in Antigua during the period covered by the major study 1917-1951 are the core of this dissertation. These sources represent in many instances, the only primary sources on the historical role of women in Antiguan trade unionism and of women's role in nation building from 1951. In addition to the oral sources, I draw heavily from primary sources accessed from U.K. National archives in London, and from the Trades Union Congress Archives in London (TUC Archives). In Antigua, the Archives in St. Johns (Antigua Archives) and the Antigua and Barbuda Museum provided some resources.