Most women who work in the packing houses of the Latin American banana industry are single mothers, from female-headed households. Men often abandon their responsibilities to their children and female partners.

Iris Munguia, Coordinator of COLSIBA’s Women’s Secretariat, describes how 'each woman on average has three or four young children to support and must work long hours or the family goes hungry. Thousands of women workers have to leave their children at home in order to be able to work.’

Life is extremely hard for these women who have to manage parent hood, long journeys from home to workplace, and long hours of wage work combined with housework, as Carmen, a union leader from Honduras, quoted in Dana Frank’s Bananeras, points out

'The work on the banana plantations enslaves is, because we work twelve hours a day or longer; that means that we almost don’t live with our families and our children are looked after by our siblings, aunts and uncles, or grandparents, those of us that have family support; those who don’t, their children are left alone. Most of the women are both father and mother to their kids.  Others lamented: We don’t raise our children: our families do.'

Childcare provision on plantations is almost non-existent which means women have to rely upon family, neighbours, and friends, or in some cases have little choice but to leave children on their own. Women often cannot afford to send their children to school, or may have to choose which of their children they can afford to educate. In addition to long working hours, domestic tasks can entail women working up to 18 hours per day, with negative effects on health and well-being.

A study on women in the Windward Islands, found that 38 percent of household heads in this part of the Caribbean are female. With only one wage earner, these households tend to be poorer and more vulnerable to economic shock.