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3 Gender-specific division of labour
3.1 Activity profile
Social and gender-specific organisation of individual tasks
Role-sharing and working conditions are not static, but are continually being redefined in the wake of processes of social change. Tasks, for example, that used to be done communally by the villagers are now done for pay - poorer villagers work for richer.
With labour becoming scarcer, cost-effectiveness grows in importance: buying processed rice to prepare meals can sometimes be more economical than the labour-intensive husking and cleaning of rice in the home. This is true, for example, when women can utilise the energy and time involved more cost-effectively in field work.
Division of labour within the family
As a result of a progressive disintegration in existing family structures, changes are also taking place on the level of the gender division of labour, often at the expense of women. The tendency is for women, besides their traditional household tasks - such as the time-consuming and strenuous fetching of water and firewood - to be more and more bound up in the sort of work for which men were formerly responsible.
How work is divided and organised by gender within the family is closely related to the size of the family and to the availability of, as well as the amount of work needing to be done in, women's own separate fields. The disintegration of the extended family and the transition to the nuclear family often results in a shortage of work capacity within the family, so that the woman's help in all aspects of field work is needed more. If the women have fields of their own, the men expect them, as a rule, to cultivate them alone or with the help of their children - although helping in the men's fields generally takes priority over this. The changes in family structure that have been outlined are accompanied by reduced willingness and capacity on the part of the men to act supportively.
For practical project work, information about who performs what tasks is needed for two reasons: first, it serves to identify the target group for project activities and, second, information about gender division of labour provides important indicators for determining the specific impacts that project activities have on women and men.
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Processing
The production and processing of agricultural products are activities that in many countries are done separately and for which different persons can be responsible. Thus, in many West African countries the processing of manioc into gari (cassava flour) is typically the domain of small independent woman producers, for whom it is an important source of income. By contrast, the cultivation of manioc is often men's business. Since, however, choice of variety, amount cultivated and production intensity can have impacts on subsequent processing (slight suitability of a variety for producing gari, longer distances / higher transportation volumes), women are competent and motivated dialogue partners for project activities in the production and processing sectors.
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Regarding the social and gender division of labour, the following questions should be asked about tasks in the post-harvest sector (cf. Chapter 1, Introduction):
- Who does what tasks as they come up ?
- women
- men
- children and young people (boys / girls)
- Does work occur within or outside the family ?
- On what terms are these tasks done ?
- without pay
- payment in cash / kind
- work done in exchange for work
- How is each activity organised ?
- individually
- collectively
Income-producing activities
In many cases, women have other sources of income than do men. In order to secure or further develop specific income sources, limiting factors such as lack of capital, restricted mobility, or unclear market factors must be eliminated. To make it possible to include these parameters adequately in the project, the following questions need to be answered:
- By what activities is income earned locally / in the (project) region ?
- by women
- by men
(differentiated by age, class and ethnicity)
- By what activities is income earned outside the immediate locality / the project region ?
- income from entrepreneurial activities in agriculture
- income from leasing
- income from wage labour
- income from non-agricultural activities
- proportion agricultural / non-agricultural income
- proportion cash / barter income
- proportion migratory work income (temporary / permanent migration)
- income earning period (all year / seasonal)
- What unpaid activities are done by women and men locally ?
- agricultural activities
- household activities
- honorary activities (village health care, associations, etc.)
Income-producing activities are highly significant for women because of their increasing financial obligations (cf. Chapter 3.2. Their motivation and readiness to act tends to rise if they have independent control over how goods produced are used (cf. Chapter 4.2). This should be qualified by noting that these income-producing activities should not - as is frequently the case - be linked to increased workloads for women.
It should also be taken into consideration that sometimes negative side-effects, such as effects on health or the level of education, accompany income-producing activities.
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Negative impacts of income-producing activities
In the manufacture of gari (cassava flour produced by fermentation of cassava), smoke and heat are produced, as are prussic acid fumes. This is true even of the many larger production plants in which the furnaces are not properly constructed. Since gari is to a large extent produced by women, they - and their infants, which they carry on their backs - are especially liable to health damage.
In the chop-bars of Kumasi, young girls are often employed in order to reduce expenses. Although this does offer them the chance to improve their income and with it their family's overall economic situation, on the other hand, it nevertheless prevents them for the time from gaining further education.
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These aspects must be taken into consideration at the project level when formulating conceptions for income-producing activities.
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Trade
In West Africa, trade - especially in agricultural products - plays a prominent role with respect to women's chances to earn an income.
In Mali and Burkina Faso, women attach great significance to raising small animals and to small-scale trade (petite commerce) as commercial activities. Three are three main forms:
- sale of raw products (millet, peanuts, rice, beans, peas, butter nuts, néré kernals, onions, spices)
- sale of processed products (millet beer, shea butter, soumbala, peanut butter and cake, tobacco, spun cotton, woven mats, etc.)
- sale of cooked dishes (rice with sauce, fried rice, fritters, biscuits, pastries, boiled or roasted peanuts/peas)..
The sale of processed products and cooked dishes predominates. In Burkina Faso, Dolo production is particularly intense - not least due to the numerous well-drilling projects and the consequent improvement in the water supply. In Mali, by contrast, these activities are of secondary importance, primarily for sociocultural reasons. In both countries, the sale of raw products tends to play a subordinate role.
In many African regions, the marketing of field crops is a good opportunity for women to earn an income. Taro, for example, rejected by men on account of its allegedly negative effect on their fertility, is nutritionally more valuable than many other products - including cassava, for example - (taro can be used as food for children or sick persons). Women can benefit from this by creating a market for taro products.
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Unpaid activities
Measures that save time and reduce work in the area of unpaid activities (elimination of hand-grinding of grain through introduction of mills, lessening time and effort spent seeking firewood through use of energy-saving stoves, etc.) can enable women to engage in more income-producing activities. However, the extent to which this in fact really happens depends in turn - apart from the possibilities at hand - principally on the social status of women and men, and is also a question of gender-determined relative strength. The introduction of work-saving technologies can also have a counterproductive impact, as the following example from Senegal shows.
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The Mill
(after a story by Fatime C. Ndiaye (CONGAD INFOS No12/1991)
As she hears the announcement on the radio, Maimouna remembers with what enthusiasm she had formerly spoken to the women of her village, how convinced she had been that they should join in the project, her project. She believed that the millet mill would mean they could sleep another hour and take a literacy course. The water pump would give them time for a chat and they would be able to meet more often under the kapok tree to do each other's hair.
Maimouna would have more time for her vegetable garden and her little field. At night, she reckoned up the additional income in her head and imagined all the things she would do with it. She wanted to begin modestly, because the first earnings would surely not be all too plentiful. First, the garden fence was to be repaired and the children were to get new clothes. But then, when the vegetable garden and the larger field returned larger yields, she would buy the silver bangles she had always wanted and would go to Dakar. Dakar, city of lights. In Dakar she would visit her aunt, who would be astonished at the many presents her niece would bring her, and that she could read the newspaper now! Her aunt would be sorry she had left the village so soon.
Time has passed, and Maimouna no longer pounds millet. Nor does she have to walk for kilometres any more to get firewood and water. Instead, her husband now makes her work in his fields, digging weeds and watering his vegetables. She has not been able to enlarge her own field. The council of elders has given her to understand that she has no claim to land, that she can be well-satisfied with what she has received from her husband.
Still, she now has the most beautiful garden in the village and has even been congratulated on it by the project and the prefect. But nobody has asked her what has happened to the money from the vegetables it produced, and if they did,.she wouldn't have had anything good to report. Since she has a few pennies more, Karim won't buy schoolbooks and clothing for the children anymore. He won't even pay for the spices in the couscous now. That is so embarrassing to Maimouna that she can hardly admit it even to herself. Lately Karim even thinks she should also buy his tobacco and cola nuts. Thanks to Maimouna, he has saved a lot of money, so he can marry a second wife sooner than planned - the ox has already been bought.
But why complain. The whole village is full of praise for Maimouna's courage and energy. She is held to be an example for all women who are not content with their lot. The broth boils over. Maimouna forgets her dreams; she must wake the children. In her village they say that there are only two possibilities for women: "Mut mba moot" - submit or go. But where?
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3.2 Duration and division of labour
Analyses of the daily and seasonal division of labour between women and men show that substantial gender-specific differences exist here. On the project level, studies of the extent and the daily and seasonal division of labour are of interest in identifying the individual workloads or capacities of women and men. When carrying out such studies, the following questions are important:
- What is the overall burden, in terms of time, on women and men?
- What is the daily routine of women, men and children?
- How are the individual tasks of women and men distributed over the day / the year?
- working hours per year
- working hours per month / season (rainy season or dry season)
- working hours per day
- How much travel time (with and without burdens) do women and men put in daily / over the year?
- How much time does the project require from women and men?
- How much time can women realistically afford for certain project activities in view of their usually tight time-schedules?
- In what way can the project help to reduce demands on time, especially for women?
- At what times of day, week and year should project activities (continuing education, etc.) take place which specifically address women and / or men?
Work calendars can be drawn up as a useful instrument out of the "toolbox" of participatory methods for the study of gender-specific differences in the amount and division of labour. In this process, women and men themselves record the activities they engage in and compare the times required over the course of the year in order to determine peak workloads.
The following example of a work calendar was drawn up at the suggestion of the project by woman farmers in Burkina Faso. Discussions building on the basis of such a work calendar can make a relevant contribution to project design. Specifically, the following issues can be discussed:
- What has changed regarding activities in comparison to earlier?
- How have demands on time developed?
- Is a growing workload accompanied by growing prosperity?
- What strategies have women developed concerning the division of labour with their men?
Women's tasks month-by-month
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January
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Small-scale trade, spin cotton, brew dolo (a local beer) and prepare meals for traditional festivals and funerals, travel to traditional ceremonies, funerals and marriages
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February
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Small-scale trade, spin cotton, attend funerals, marriages
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March
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Collect stones to build bunds, transport manure to the fields, spin cotton, pan for gold, small-scale trade, cut firewood to provide for the rainy season, gather and bale straw, winnow and store millet
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April
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Small-scale trade, spin cotton, collect stones to build bunds, spread manure, cut firewood, gather straw, winnow and store millet, pan for gold
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May
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Clear scrub from fields, ted straw and silage, build bunds, cut firewood, spin cotton, small-scale trade, sort seeds, shell peanuts, sow seed if there is rainfall
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June
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Clear scrub, sort seed, shell peanuts, sow seed, plough
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July
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Sow seed, plough, weed
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August
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Ridge, thin out, transplant, weed and harvest corn
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September
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Search for leaves for sauces (sorrel, "boulvanka"), dry leaves, gather beans, harvest peas, peanuts and corn and shuck corn, harvest gombo
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October
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Search for and dry leaves, gather beans, harvest gombo, peas, peanuts, harvest millet
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November
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Harvest millet, dry and store harvested peanuts, gather beans, harvest sorrel seeds, harvest sesame
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December
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Stockpile grain in stores, prepare germinated millet for dolo used at traditional ceremonies, spin cotton, small-scale trade
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