"the abandoned lower class of females": Class, gender, and penal discipline in Barbados, 1875-1929

Between 1873 and 1917, the numbers of Barbadian women committed to penal custody on an annual basis surpassed those of men. While women's per capita imprisonment rate was still somewhat below that of men for most of these years, given the wide margins by which women outnumbered men in the population and the labor force, these proportions were nevertheless unprecedented, not only in the British Caribbean but also in other parts of the world. Available figures for Jamaica and Trinidad over sections of the period hover around an 18-20 percent female proportion rate, while in Barbados the rate usually exceeded 50 percent.