AAS 17 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Cash Crop, Microfinance, Informal Sector
30 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
2/5/18
Culture and Women’s Work
• What are the specific attributes of patriarchy in African societies?
• Does the local culture prevent women from going to school, and working?
• A view from Ghana (West Africa)
o Dreams for my Daughter (Ghana)
▪ Do women work, and if they do under what conditions?
▪ Do women go to school?
▪ If women work and go to school, why does patriarchy still exist?
❖ Not everyone goes to school.
❖ Not every male goes to school.
o Don’t want male and female children go to school b/c:
▪ Need labor help
▪ Have to buy books
▪ Girls who go to work are looked down upon.
o Traditionally girls married early or were fostered.
▪ Single-motherhood is very problematic
▪ Fostering where parents, usually mothers, will give their daughters to other
family members. They are additional laborers. The children may not have a
choice and would not be able to go to school.
African Women and Work
• Work: Any activity that generates revenue in the local economy.
• Women are rarely forbidden from working outside the home.
• Most African women do some work that earns revenue.
• There are female doctors, engineers, professors, attorneys, presidents, etc.
o By in large a wealthy female will have more status, authority, and power than a male
who is less educated.
In almost all professional cohorts, men earn more and are more successful than women.
• If a male and female are both doctors and graduated in the same year, over time the male
doctor will outpace the female doctor professionally.
• Not about men work and women don’t.
o Trying to understand how men almost always outpace the women.
• Why?
o Is it about ability? Maybe men have more potential and ability to be a doctor?
o Maybe men are socialized to be more cutthroat and aggressive.
o Women get pregnant and have to look after the children.
o Maybe women have different interests.
o Maybe women are overlooked, especially in high intense environments. When women
to try to be more assertive, they are looked down upon.
Being Feminine/Masculine
• What does it mean to be masculine or manly w/ respect to work life in Africa?
o Investing a lot of time in professional advancement.
o Spending a lot of your profit/revenue in professional advancement.
o Not doing any domestic work or chores.
o Not being very involved in childcare responsibilities.
• What does it mean to be feminine or womanly w/ respect to work life in Africa?
o African patriarchy does not prevent woman from working. They expect women to work
in a womanly way.
• How does society respond to individuals viewed as insufficiently feminine or insufficiently
masculine?
o In general, negative reaction if a man is not masculine in an expected way or if a woman
is not feminine in an expected way.
• Tensions b/w gender norms and requirements for professional advancement.
o If women work in womanly ways in different African contexts they are likely to fall
behind.
o Women are encouraged to work and to work hard, just need to do it in feminine ways.
Questions
• How are opportunities for professional advancement gendered in Africa?
• In what ways are those opportunities unequal for men and women?
Areas in Which Women Work
• Informal economy and trading
• Agriculture and farming
• Education
• Each of these three areas, there are expectations of how women should work.
Informal Economy and Markets
• Informal Economy: Trade and business activities that are not regulated by the government.
o Undependable revenue
o Can make money but are unsure of how much they can make.
• Informal economic activity often takes place in open air markets in Africa.
• Requirements for success in informal economy:
o Access to loans w/ which to expand business.
o Ability to invest profits in expanding business.
• Examples of what women do in markets:
o Food vending in a markets
o Selling vegetables in markets
o Selling fabric in markets
o Selling beads in markets
Document Summary
The children may not have a choice and would not be able to go to school. In almost all professional cohorts, men earn more and are more successful than women. When women to try to be more assertive, they are looked down upon. In general, negative reaction if a man is not masculine in an expected way or if a woman is not feminine in an expected way: tensions b/w gender norms and requirements for professional advancement. If women work in womanly ways in different african contexts they are likely to fall behind: women are encouraged to work and to work hard, just need to do it in feminine ways. Informal economy and trading: agriculture and farming, education, each of these three areas, there are expectations of how women should work. Informal economy: trade and business activities that are not regulated by the government: undependable revenue, can make money but are unsure of how much they can make.
