Music in the formal education system in Jamaica today offers multicultural variety. Students may choose to study in the tradition of instrumental European music by taking the series of music examinations set by Britain, and/or study Caribbean folk and popular music and Africa America Jazz traditions. Studying this variety of musical genres would not have been possible in the formal system up to the mid-1970s, since only European music was taught.

Within a context of increasing economic hardship for post-colonial societies, many Caribbean women suffer gender-based economic, political and social disadvantages which put them in a stressful and precarious situation. This paper explores how women in the Region are challenging the difficulties of their position by cultural work and through groups striving for the development of a feminist political literacy.