Document(s) 11 of 16

The Role of African Women and Girls

Women are not only responsible for ensuring the food supply (production, processing, conservation), but also for providing and dispensing everything concerning people's health (childbirth, educating children, domestic hygiene, the supply of water and firewood, improving living facilities, feeding the family properly, etc.) All these activities have an impact on women's own health and on that of their progeny.

Women have been doing all this work since the times of our great-grandmothers, without even having the chance to express openly their own point of view about the often harmful impact of all these burdens on their own health. Today, with policies for promotion and self-management in rural communities, many things have changed. There are now new openings for women to express themselves. The new structures are intended to make women an integral part of management and development. Some especially dynamic women are taking the initiative to create their own structures and manage projects themselves.

Women today are breaking the bonds of silence and demanding the right to be heard. In so doing, they are organizing themselves, and refusing to retreat before the many obstacles (lack of legal status, contacts, and experience, no access to credit or extension services, illiteracy, etc.).

There are traditional organizations, known by the names of traditional associations (Ton in Mali, Nam in Burkina Faso, Samaria in Nigeria, etc.) that are instruments of communication and development, and many women and girls belong to them. Nearly all African countries have become aware of this fact, and modern structures have been created to help them take full charge of their work. These are known as village groupings (of girls, adult women, and the elderly), cooperatives, unions, committees, etc. Today, all these coexist with existing traditional structures.

Every structure gets the chance to express itself in the face of specific situations and circumstances, whether spontaneous or provoked.

These various activities carried out by women are the subject of sometimes very lively discussion.

Nonformal Grassroots Education

Education can be acquired in many ways at different stages of life (early childhood, school age, adolescence, adulthood, old age). An individual can evolve in various social settings at the same time and at each stage.

The family instills the basic elements, the community and surroundings complement the individual's moulding, and it is perfected by personal experience. Schooling is supposed to reinforce what other influences have already instilled. Generally, girls and boys follow different paths from birth, as a reflection of the roles and responsibilities that the family and society set for each sex.

Educational settings have differing effects, depending on whether they are urban or rural. J.J. Rousseau said, "We shape plants through husbandry, and people through education." This statement explains quite nicely the role and influence of education in the perception of the relationship between men and women.

It is often said in Africa that women are not the equals of men, that they should be content with family duties, and submit to the demands of custom.

Community Expectations

SocioculturalEconomicPoliticalEnvironmentalMan Founding a family

Reputation and social position

Protecting his family

Looking after women's problems

Authority figure

Educating the children

Following tradition

Participating in expression of group culture Assuring minimum for survival

Growing cash crops

Having money

Having livestock

Providing equipment

Having more farmland Role in community life and decision-making

Being better informed about direction of development

Improving his social status

Accepting responsibilities Combatting desertification

Mastering the elements

Migrating

Woman Ensuring everyone's well-being through cultural and social ceremonies

Being mother and wife

Educating the children

Following tradition Having access to land

Providing daily food

Working at farming and livestock

Processing agricultural products

Carrying on a small business Being consulted on decisions

Implementing decisions

Being informed about the direction of development Combatting desertification

Managing natural resources

Cultural Barriers to Women

Resistance to change

The weight of tradition and customs (limited mobility for women, prejudices, social pressures, etc.)

Means of communication (poor timing, technical language)

No sexually differentiated statistics

Mechanical role of women in management committees

Lack of time because of family and social responsibilities and sexual division of labour

Poorly informed, trained, educated (illiteracy)

Women are poorly organized

No role in decision-making

No chances for personal growth

Conflict with traditional criteria for choosing leaders (project objectives not understood)

Women's illiteracy tends to deny them access to information, and thus hinders the dissemination of knowledge.

Messages aimed at women thus encounter a good deal of interference or "static." We know that communication is essential for any relationship, and that it plays a prime role in maintaining a balance within human communities. In traditional African society, communication is loaded with meaning and implications.

Specific Needs of Women

• empowerment ("gaining recognition by taking responsibility");
• grassroots education through the media;
• informing and sensitizing husbands;
• identifying factors and potentials for social, and group change;
• identifying the social decision-making process;
• training women to manage and negotiate;
• recasting policies and development options; and
• using the "gender" approach as a tool for:
  • identifying and removing barriers to change,
  • better information and communication,
  • gathering, processing, and interpreting sexually differentiated statistics,
  • identifying targets, sectors, areas, and levels for action,
  • involving beneficiaries in planning and execution of projects or activities, and
  • adapting woman-oriented activities to fit their time constraints.

Thus, all so-called development workers need to change their habits and behaviour.

Document(s) 11 of 16