Women In 21st Trinidad & Tobago

                    21ST CENTURY TRINIDAD WOMEN & HER EFFECTS ON THE FAMILY



The life and worth of women has changed drastically over the years in Trinidad and Tobago. So much so, the 21st Century Trinidad woman paints as the answer to many women's prayers of the past. The woman has more rights to an opinion and for the most part have caused a shift in power and control of the system viz the structure. This shift has been caused by educational and economic changes. Women are now able to access a better education and it is through this means that they become eligible to occupy the jobs previously held by men. Additionally, there are more women in the workforce that before. Due to the advancement of technology, jobs previously held by men due to their physical prowess have now been opened to women seeing physical strength is no longer needed. These changes have however had several reciprocities on the structure and nature of the family.

The man to woman relationship within the home is firstly affected. Seeing that income is now in the hands of both partners there is no longer distinct lines of who is in control based on the supply of the money. Additionally, men tend to resent or feel intimidated by a woman that is an equal provider or more than himself so what happens within the home is that as a means of asserting their dominance they abuse the women.

Indeed, despite the tremendous gains made by women in Trinidad in terms of equality of education and employment, women of all classes, ethnicities and professions continue to experience various forms of patriarchal control, often in the form of violence. According to the Feminist Review Spring 1991 an estimated one in four women from Trinidad and Tobago households experience domestic violence and one in three is battered. East Indian women especially although they were able to maintain some degree of autonomy and independence, their efforts were often undermined by Indian men, who, in an attempt to reconstruct the patriarchal Indian family, often resorted to violence.

The changing role of women in the Trinidad Society has also affected the role of men in said society. Seeing the man has less economic control in the home this leaves him feeling alienated and marginalized in the family. Some view women as neglecting her family responsibilities pursuing a career. So now with the different changes within the traditional family unit one considers the dynamic of the Trinidad family at this time and the conceptions of the role between the man and woman to be that both the husband and the wife in a family should be employed so the household earns two incomes rather than one. However, it is greater accepted that a woman can be the traditional housewife or, in conjunction with her job, she is to execute the duties of the female counterpart. That is, the woman is expected to do the domestics and handle the sensitive, time consuming tasks such as caring for the children or paying the bills. The idea of a house husband is greatly looked down upon by Trinidadian inhabitants especially as they are of the idea that if a woman is able to care for her household on just her salary while the man stays at home, there is no need for a husband. As such, the man is expected to provide the majority of the income and handle more strenuous, manual labor at the home. So although both men and women working is accepted as the family norm/dynamic in contemporary Trinidad women are still expected to perform her duties of the household whatever they may be and leave the man to be the primary bread winner. Also,  although more women are entering the labor force, by a large, men are still the primary breadwinners of the family in Trinidad.