‘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.

The six case studies on the development of women's bureaux examined in this publication are from the Commonwealth Caribbean countries, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana and Jamaica. The Commonwealth Caribbean shares the socio-economic characteristics of poor Third world communities, with special features derived from the history, economic development and geographical position of the area.

The case studies are presented in the order in which the continuous government programme for Women in Development in each country was started. This virtually coincides with the order in which each country in the sample gained political independence. Jamaica; Guyana; Barbados; Grenada; Dominica; Belize

As the Decade of Women draws to its close there is a distinct difference in the orientation of women's bureaux, or equivalent, to be discerned in the six Commonwealth Caribbean countries discussed. On the one hand, Barbados, Guyana and perhaps in its own way, Grenada, are structure-oriented. They are realistic about the limited resources available and have come to regard the processes and machinery of operation as the greatest achievement to date and the most important development.