women (out of 52 households that included women) were
involved in own-account farming. They had greater access
to extension advice than women in a nearby village.
Increased food production by men resulted in women
being able to sell a larger portion of their own crops than
was typical in the region. Women in the settlement also
worked fewer hours than their counterparts in the nearby
village. However, the settlement was not linked with
markets, making it difficult for women to participate in
trading, which was their primary income-generating
activity. In addition, women were not given settler status
and did not obtain land rights on their own.
Spiro, H.M. 1987. Women farmers and traders in Oyo
State, Nigeria—A case study of their changing roles. In
J.H. Momsen and J.G. Townsend (eds.), Geography of
Gender in the Third World. Albany, New York: State
University of New York Press.
The economic roles of men and women are examined for
two settings in Oyo State, Nigeria: Oluwatedo village,
which is a traditional settlement with medium-sized farms,
and the Ilora farm settlement, which is a planned
settlement with large farms. Land tenancy differs in the
two areas, but in general women work on their parents’ or
husbands’ farms and do not own their own land. Most of
the men farm and most of the women participate in trade
activities. However, regardless of occupation, women spend
about 25% of their time on farm work. Women are
involved in planting, applying fertilizer, harvesting,
transporting, processing, and selling crops; some have
recently begun farming on their own. However, women
also contribute financially to their families and their own
kin groups, primarily through trading and especially
through trading prepared food. Despite the popular view
that women are mainly traders, all women in the study area
did more farm work than trading. The author also points
out the overlap in gender roles and states that child-care
can be adequately accomplished simultaneously with
trading or farming. One implication of these findings is
that development policies must recognize women’s need for
independent incomes in order to be successful.
Spring, A. 1995. Agricultural Development and Gender
Issues in Malawi. New York: University Press of
America.
The Women in Agricultural Development Project in
Malawi in the early 1980s was considered a success and an
example for other projects designed to benefit women. The
book details the project and the structure of agriculture in
Malawi. In addition, it provides gender-disaggregated data
on agricultural production in Malawi and a discussion of
how to improve data collection to ensure that women and
their activities are not underrepresented. A case study
focuses on the maize trials in one rural development
project. Differences exist in farming systems by wealth and
gender, but women were successfully involved in the maize
trials and worked well with male extension officers and
researchers.
Spurling, D., H. Mekonen, and K.A. Saito. 1994. Raising
the Productivity of Women Farmers in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Although women farmers dominate smallholder food
production in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia,
the economic, social, and cultural environment in which
they work is inhospitable to increasing productivity. This
report documents women’s role in agriculture, identifies and
evaluates the key constraints women farmers face, and
recommends measures to alleviate these constraints. The
study finds that rural African households are changing and
that traditional gender roles in farming systems are breaking
down. As many men migrate off the farm, women are
growing crops and performing tasks traditionally reserved
for men. Female-headed households are becoming
increasingly common and the demands on the time of
women who head households are significantly greater than
demands placed on men. Many farms headed by women
cannot achieve potential agricultural output due to their
disadvantaged access to inputs and support services. Steps
should be taken to secure women’s access to sufficient land,
labor, technology appropriate to women’s needs, gender-
sensitive agricultural research and extension, and credit.
Stamp, P. 1976. Perceptions of change and economic
strategy among Kikuyu women of Mitero, Kenya. Rural
Africana 29 (Winter): 19-43.
This article relates how Kikuyu women perceive the social
and economic changes they have experienced in the last 50
years. In the past, the community engaged exclusively in
subsistence hoe-agriculture, with maize being one of the
staple crops. The introduction of cash crops, such as coffee,
has catalyzed the shift to a money economy. Men are
primarily responsible for coffee production and all of the
benefits accrue to them, even when their wives provide the
labor. Women continue to engage in traditional subsistence
agriculture, growing maize for their family’s consumption.
Many women complain that development has weakened
feelings of social responsibility and that husbands no longer
provide enough support for their families. However, many
women welcome the increased independence they have
gained through their participation in women’s groups,
entrepreneurial activities, and new legal rights (such as
being able to hold land). Communal women’s groups have
increased individuals’ bargaining power as well as the social
and political clout of the group as a whole. These groups
grew out of, and eventually replaced, traditional women’s
lodges. This article provides an account of the ambivalent
feelings many women have towards the social and economic
changes precipitated by development efforts.
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