Female self-employment in 20th century Tobago

Dr Rita Pemberton

Employment opportunities in 20th century Tobago were very limited. Estate labour on coconut and cocoa estates and on the few tobacco farms provided the main option but wages were extremely low, working conditions were poor and could not sustain families. The central government established a works department which oversaw road works and mainly employed men. Women were employed on the roads in the windward areas when landslides occurred and the roads needed to be cleared of the debris and/or repaired. This was considered degrading work and only those women who faced extenuating circumstances would accept such jobs. Women were hired to carry the material cleared from the roads on their heads to the dump sites, and in cases where material for road repair was required, the women were employed to cart gravel and stone on their heads from the rivers to the work site. Estates employed women especially in the windward part of the island where male migration was most marked, but they were paid less than men for the same work and worked under very poor conditions. The low wages could not provide the essential items to sustain families because of the rising cost of living. However, it was not the most desirable option and women sought several means to employ themselves outside of estate labour.

The basis for female self-employment had been well established since the post-emancipation era when, as a part of the strategy to defy planter control, women remained at home rather than work on the estates. At their homes women cultivated food items in the available spaces, some of which they sold or used to make other items for sale at their homes, in the markets or in parlous they established. These ventures provided the basis for the development of female domestic trading activities of the 20th century.

One of the main means of self-employment was in the provision of what developed as an essential service, selling items within and between communities and between TT.

Women in the urban areas created businesses selling baked goods, the most popular traditional food treats of Tobago. Women with trays lined with beautifully embroidered cloth – usually bleached flour bags – carried the food delicacies of Tobago for sale in and around Scarborough and to work sites on the island. The items sold included a variety of pastries such as coconut, guava and pineapple tarts; coconut roll; starch cakes – an item which required a particular skill and is now in danger of becoming a lost art; cakes including drops, biscuits and rock cakes; sweet bread; bread; paime; black pudding and drinks such as ginger beer and sorrel. Confectionery such as a variety of sugar cakes; bennah balls; lime balls (pawpaw balls); toolum; mints; fudge; shaddock skin candy; guava jelly; stewed guava and other fruit; cashew nuts and the very distinct Tobago pone made from corn or sweet potato, were offered for sale. Tobago pone is very different from the Trinidad version, and is made with sweet potato with a small amount of cassava to give it body, and black pepper, one of the most essential ingredients.

Some women became specialists in the production of items, particularly pone, starch cake, black pudding and ginger beer. But the market for these items not only served to popularise them, but also helped to preserve the art of their production. All the ingredients for these items came from local sources – either the yards or gardens of the women – or were sourced from the neighbours who found a market for the items they cultivated. In addition to selling on trays in the streets in and around the town and in the markets, the items were sold in parlours or through orders to send as gifts to members of the Tobago diaspora in Trinidad. In the rural areas women also sold fried fish and bread and other baked goods in their communities and neighbouring villages.

Another area of employment that was popular among women across the island was trafficking. The higglers or traffickers, as they were popularly called, created an employment niche for themselves providing items to places where availability was a common problem.

Women traffickers plied their business between villages and between the islands of TT. They sold everything that was in demand: animals; fowls; ground provisions; fruit, especially mangoes and sugar apples; corn; peas; pumpkin; farine and coconut oil. Many of these items were purchased from producers across the island and in the Scarborough market for resale in Trinidad. Hence the business of trafficking generated business within Tobago as well as between Tobago and Trinidad. In these ways the women generated income to support their families and improve their standard of living, but the value of the service they offered goes beyond their contributions to individual families.

It is to be noted that these practices occurred during a period which was characterised by an acute shortage of cash on the island. This shortage led to the practice of payment in kind which generated tensions between employers and workers. Traffickers who sold items in Trinidad were paid in cash, which was used to purchase goods in Tobago. This helped to reduce the shortage and contributed to the circulation of coin on the island. Secondly, these gender-based businesses fostered the development of an internal marketing network which provided increased employment opportunities for women on the island, some of whom could work from home. This was significant at a time when the prevailing assumption was that women would remain as homemakers and could access only the lowest paying jobs. At that time, what would now be called “work from home” assumed a new meaning, and some women were able to enjoy remuneration for their labour. It is also very important to note that, at a time when there existed no consideration of the need for centres to facilitate unemployed people, through their operating networks these services functioned as informal employment centres in Tobago.