Abstract
The construction of the Panama Canal has been seen as one of the greatest engineering achievements in US history. However, this view has meant that most of the scholarly attention on the canal has been focused entirely on the roles of male high ranking officials and laborers in determining the contribution to the completion of this engineering feat, without mention of women's involvement or the presence of women in the Canal Zone during this period. Despite the absence of women in general sources regarding the history of the construction of the Panama Canal, women were important contributors to this construction process through their work as nurses, administrative staff members, community planners, and domestic workers. This thesis will focus on the roles and contributions of women during the construction of the Panama Canal in medicine, administrative, and domestic duties with comparative analysis of the work and contributions of women in previous Panamanian trans-isthmian projects. Sources such as government documents, personal memoirs, and testimonials from Canal Zone residents and travelers, and the weekly journal, The Canal Record, are analyzed in this research in order to recover the hidden histories of the roles and contributions of women in the Canal Zone during the early twentieth century. This research contributes to the historiography ofboth America and Latin America as it provides the women's perspective and contribution to the history of this topic, providing a challenge to dominant narratives which focus on male high ranking officials, diplomats, and male laborers.
