The paper considers the impacts of feminist activism on CARICOM society over the past 30 years. Using the author’s experience it considers feminism’s influence on women in leadership positions and how this changed their politics and practice as they sought to influence the politics and programmes of women’s organizations, NGOs, government policy, key institutions and societal attitudes to women, taking account of the resistance encountered and support received along the way.

It argues that feminist activism working from within and outside various institutions achieved some of its objectives, although not always in ways that were favourable to its cause, and recognizes feminism as an on-going dialogic process that, despite its limitations, nevertheless has the capacity to transform relationships and systems that are oppressive. Finally, it attempts to draw out the implications for feminist activism in today’s changing context.