‘Ladies in Limbo’ began as set of consultancies in preparation for a workshop on the management, organisation and structure of Women's Bureaux in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The case studies have been developed into a book by Shirley Gordon, a Jamaican with long experience of development projects in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Commonwealth Secretariat wishes to thank her and all four consultants, Peggy Antrobus, Hazel Blake, Sonja Harris, Joycelyn Massiah and Magda Pollard, for their hard and committed work.