The fledging Women and Development Studies Groups on the three campuses of the University of the West Indies received generous and helpful support at their beginnings from several donors, including the Ford Foundation, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Global Ministries of the Methodist Church. Our most sustained academic collaboration, however, was with the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at The Hague, from 1986 to 1996.

This paper examines the expansion of gender teaching at the UWI and our multifaceted academic interactions with the ISS; and the opening up of knowledge and ideas about gender in the academy and in the community. As stated by a school librarian, "The only activity I have the energy to undertake on a Friday afternoon is to travel to the UWI campus for a gender seminar."

The central role of gender in national development is explored as a critical area of study, one to be fully supported by the academic agendas of both the UWI and the ISS.