UGRC 231: Gender and Development (Sessions 1-6) - Gloria Teye PDF

UGRC 231: Gender and Development Session 1 – Lecturer: Dr. Akosua Darkwah Contact Information: [email protected] College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017  Objectives of Course The course will enable studen...

UGRC 231: Gender and Development Session 1 – Lecturer: Dr. Akosua Darkwah Contact Information: [email protected] College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017  Objectives of Course The course will enable students to  understand key concepts in gender and development  recognize the ways in which gender structures opportunities, rights and citizenship  appreciate and understand how development policies and processes work to have differential impacts on men and women  understand state and civil society responses to gender inequalities  Section 1: Key Ideas in Gender and Development By the end of this section, students should be able to: List and define key concepts in Gender and Development. Critically analyze the relationship between Gender and Development. Name and explain some of the international protocols that have shaped the Gender and Development discourse.  Key Concept 1: Sex versus Gender Sex refers to the biological differences between women and men. For example, men produce sperm, women produce breastmilk. The biological differences between men and women are the same all over the world. No matter where in the world you go, only the men will produce sperm. Unlike sex, which is a biological concept, gender is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally prescribed ideas about the behaviour, actions, and roles a particular sex performs and follows.  Key Concept 1 Continued The Sociologist Judith Butler argues that gender is performed by which she means that individuals take on a role, they ACT their gender. Nobody is born gendered from the start How one acts out one’s gender depends on where one is raised. Gender looks different in different parts of the world. In the Soviet Union, medicine was considered a subject for girls so most doctors are female. In Ghana, medicine is seen as a field of study for women.  Activity Go to the Wikipedia site and find information about the Yaake dance that the Wodaabe men of Niger do. What is the difference between how these Wodaabe men look and how Ghanaian men look? Discuss whether this is an example of sex or gender and why. Read the Judith Lorber article attached. Summarise her argument in one paragraph.  Key Concept 2: Gender Equality Gender Equality is the idea that women and men should be given equal opportunities/the space to become who they want to be. In education for example, gender equality is the idea that both women and men should be given the opportunity to go to school. How far they go in school should be determined by the individual, not society. Equal opportunities policies and legislation tackle the problem through measures to increase women’s participation in public life. However, this focus on formal equality, does not necessarily demand or ensure equality of outcomes.  Key Concept 3: Gender Equity Gender equity focuses on the equality of outcomes for both men and women so as with the example on education, gender equity refers to ensuring that both women and men do well in school. Gender equity recognises that men and women have different needs, interests and preferences and therefore may require different treatment. The goal of gender equity, sometimes called substantive equality, moves beyond equality of opportunity by requiring transformative change. An equity approach implies that all development policies and interventions need to be scrutinised for their impact on gender relations.  Activity Take a look at the jpeg file titled Gender equality and equity. In your own words, describe how the picture depicts the difference between gender equality and equity. Key Concept 4: Gender Mainstreaming The United Nations defines gender mainstreaming as “a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.”  Reproductive and productive labour Reproductive labour is work at home (often unpaid and not valued) e.g. nurturing children, cleaning, cooking, washing dishes, sweeping, etc.) Productive labour refers to work for economic reward  Gender division of labour This refers to the situation where male roles and responsibilities, often productive labour undertaken outside the home is valued while women’s roles and responsibilities are undervalued  Practical and strategic gender needs Practical gender needs are “immediate perceived" needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, education, and health care. Strategic gender interests arise, as a result, of women's subordination thus, calls for changes in the social structures and institutions that define women's position in society. For instance, equal access to land, capital and participation in decision making in the public sphere can be considered strategic interest of women.  Activity Watch the clip attached. https://www.facebook.com/us.emb.addisababa/videos /1111947795514259 Describe what you see using the words reproductive labour, productive labour and gender division of labour Key Concept 5: What is Development? human wellbeing and welfare PROGRESS access to basic necessities of life (housing, food, health, clothing etc.) freedoms and liberties modernisation equality peace and justice higher income rights improved standards of living elimination of poverty, disease and hunger technological advancement greater and more equal opportunities (for employment, education, etc.)  Definitions of Development 1 Kwesi Kwaa Prah, a Ghanaian sociologist defines it as: “The improvement and upliftment of the quality of life of people, that they are able…to attain their potential, build and acquire self-confidence, and manage to live lives of reasonable accomplishment and dignity.” (Kwasi Kwaa Prah 2001, p. 91  Definitions of Development 2 Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize winning economist defines it as: “Development can be seen…as a process of expanding real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrast with the narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industrialisation or with technological advance, or with social modernisation.” (Amartya Sen, 1999 p.3  Definitions of Development 3 The United Nations is very concerned about issues of development. They publish the Human Development Report every year. In 2000, the UN spearheaded the development of the Millennium Development Goals which were in force from 2000-2015 In 2015, the UN spearheaded the development of the Sustainable Development Goals which will be in effect from 2015-2030  Activity In your own words, how would you describe development? How do you determine which country is developed and which is less developed?  Why is gender a development issue? Development aims to change people’s lives, individually and collective. Yet, all aspects of life is gendered -- family life, work and livelihoods, sexuality, social relations, access to opportunities, etc. Established social structures or institutions have gendered dimensions which will influence the processes and impact of development. – THE FAMILY– the basic unit of society – TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY– chieftaincy, lineage – INSTITUTIONS OF MODERN GOVERNANCE– district assemblies, parliament – Economic structures – labour organisations, employment patterns (formal and informal)  Why is gender a development issue? Every development policy, program or project is gendered…. ◦ in nature (its assumptions, goals and implementation) ◦ in impact International Protocols on gender and development In 1972, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the year 1975 as the International Women's Year. The First World Conference on Women took place in June, 1975 in Mexico City. – UN Decade for Women – Establishment of National Machineries – Adoption of Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW  International Protocols continued In 1975, the UN General Assembly endorsed the proposals of the Mexico conference and proclaimed the period 1976–85 as the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development, and Peace. The UN Decade for Women, therefore, called on governments to promote the integration of women in national development. In Ghana, the National Council on Women and Development was set up in response to these calls.  International Protocols continued An important milestone during the UN Decade for Women was the adoption of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Dec 1979.  International Protocols continued Key issues of CEDAW states parties are to adopt all appropriate measures to abolish existing laws, regulations, customs, and practices that are discriminatory against women; and establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men. equal rights for women in voting and holding public office and in education, employment, and health care. elimination of discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.  International Protocols continued 2nd International World Conference on Women, (Copenhagen, 1980). 3rd World Conference on Women, Nairobi, 1985. - Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000  International Protocols continued The Forward Looking Strategies called for: Sexual Equality Women’s Autonomy and Power Recognition of Women’s Unpaid Work Advances in Women’s Paid Work  International Protocols continued The 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 1995. “Action for Equality, Development and Peace”. – Highlighted 12 Critical Areas of Women: The Beijing Platform of Action International Protocols continued  The 12 Critical areas of the Beijing Platform for Action 1. The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women. 2. Unequal access to education and training. 3. Unequal access to health care and related services. 4. Violence against women. 5. The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women. 6. Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all productive activities and in access to resources  International Protocols Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels. 8. Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women. 9. Lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the human rights of women 10. Stereotyping of women and inequality in women's access to and participation in communication systems, especially in the media 11. Gender inequalities in natural resource management 12. Persistent discrimination against girls and violation of their rights  International Protocols  Beijing + 5 Conference “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century” – June 2000, New York.  5th World Conference on Women (Beijing +10, 2005) ◦ Special session to review progress made since the Fourth World Conference (gains and challenges) UN Millennium Summit (2000), New York. 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – 3 of which focuses on women  International Protocols African Women’s Decade- AWD 2010-2020 The African Union (AU) in 2010, officially declared year 2010-20, as the African Woman’s Decade (AWD). The theme is “Grassroots Approach to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.” The aim of the AWD is to promote gender equality by speeding up the implementation of global and regional decisions and obligations on gender equality and women’s empowerment.  Activity Identify the 3 Millennium Development Goals that focus on women. How similar or different are they from the Beijing Platform for Action and/or the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies?  Summary We have examined some key concepts in the subject – gender, gender equity, gender equality, gender mainstreaming, productive and reproductive labour, gender division of labour, practical and strategic gender needs. We defined development from various perspectives We explored why ‘Gender’ has become a development issue, as well as the social structures, which influence women’s development. Finally, this section discussed some of the major World conferences and conventions that has impacted the Gender and Development discourse.  Section 2: The WID, WAD, GAD Approaches to Development By the end of this section, you should be able to Discuss in detail the three main development approaches that emerged as a means to address gender equality and women’s concerns. List some of the strategies adopted by each approach to address women’s concerns Identify the key strengths and weakness of each  The Women in Development (WID) approach In the early 1970s, Ester Boserup, a Danish feminist economist, wrote a book titled, Women’s Role in Economic Development' in the 1970s. This book highlighted the fact that women are not only users of basic services, bearers and socialisers of children and keepers of the home, but they also represent a productive potential which was not being tapped. Proponents of the WID approach were among the first to point to women’s lack of access to the means of participating in economic life, and the invisibility (that is, lack of recognition and data) of women’s work. Boserup and other women who pioneered research into women’s role in economic development contributed to the Women In Development (WID) approach.  The WID approach It was adopted by the UN in 1975 at the first World Conference on Women held in Mexico. Governments were asked to create national machineries, such as Ministries of Women to promote and oversee national efforts to advance women and WID Units.  The WID approach The aim of WID was to integrate women into economic development by focusing on women’s productive work in two ways: - providing women money and other resources for income-generating activities - developing appropriate technologies to lighten women’s loads The WID approach is grounded in modernizing theory or the belief that economic development can be achieved through industrialization.  Criticisms of WID WID is criticized for viewing women in isolation and ignoring their relative position to men. Emphasis on women’s productive capacity criticized for failing to recognize women’s reproductive responsibilities, and the subsequent miscalculations about the responsibilities, elasticity of women’s time and labor. Women are treated as a homogeneous group, regardless of class, ethnicity, intra--household gender differences. Activities are developed for women (based on situation analysis) without engaging men in understanding their needs or allowing them to take part in them.  Criticisms of WID continued The approach focused on integration of without questioning the existing development paradigms and the power relations that put women at a disadvantage. Moreover, because the WID approach was firmly grounded in modernization theory, it assumed that adopting Western strategies would lead to solutions to the problem therefore, it did not recognize the contribution of indigenous knowledge Furthermore, the WID approach tends to see development as an activity of government thus, it viewed the state as a solution, rather than a potential obstacle to the advancement of women. The Women and Development (WAD) Approach In the second half of the 1970s, the Women and Development (WAD) approach was advocated by women from the South who felt that the ’bigger’ issues of colonialism and unequal global relationships had not been taken into account in the WID perspective.  The WAD approach WAD argues that women have always been a part of the development processes but that their work has been exploited to profit others in the global North. The WAD paradigm focused on the distinctive roles, responsibility, work and knowledge of women and called for these to be acknowledged and valued. WAD advocated increasing women’s share in resources, land, employment and income. The WAD perspective therefore was more concerned about the relationship between women and development rather than integration of women into development.  Criticisms of WAD The WAD approach downplays the class, racial and ethnic differences among women. WAD focused on international relations of power and neglected relations between genders and classes. The WAD position equally downplays the role of patriarchy and does not adequately explain gender power relations and their impact on development. Furthermore, the advocacy for separate projects for women, as well as, women’s only organizations did not produce the desired transformational impact  Criticisms of WAD continued The WAD model has therefore, tended to focus its intervention strategies on the promotion of income- generating activities without taking into consideration the competing time demands such strategies place on women who also have a reproductive role to perform  The Gender and Development (GAD) Approach In the 1980s, the Gender and Development approach was developed. Alternative to modernizing theory. Women recognized as diverse group with interests which vary by sex, class, age and ethnicity. Recognizes men and women as partners in development. Consideration of both of them in economic and political relations. The Gender and Development (GAD) approach concentrated on the unequal relations between men and women and seeks to transform this. Thus GAD focuses not only on women (as WID and WAD did) but the social relations between men and women.  GAD continued This perspective emphasizes the equal access of women and men to the control of resources, as well as, benefits, which accrue from development. This perspective analyzes the contributions of women in terms of work done both within (reproductive) including unpaid domestic work and outside the household (productive work). In other words, it recognises the gender division of labour.  GAD continued GAD also puts the responsibility on the state to provide social services to support women’s social reproduction role (e.g. caring and nurturing children and taking care of the old and sick). The GAD paradigm argues that this would help in promoting the emancipation of women. The GAD approach recognizes women as agents of change rather than mere recipients of development and it emphasizes the need for women to mobilize in order to achieve greater political impact.  GAD continued Furthermore, the GAD model asserts that women experience oppression differently based on their race, class, culture, colonial history, and position in the global economic system (Moser 1993 [as cited in Parpart et al., 2000]). Another important area, which has attracted the attention of GAD advocates is Gender Law and Development (GLAD). The GLAD takes a right-based approach to development with the aim of strengthening women’s legal rights and reform laws that discriminate against women such inheritance and land laws. The GAD perspective is interested in pursuing the strategic gender needs of women.  Activities The 31st December Women’s Movement which begun in 1982 set up cottage industries processing gari, palm oil and so on. Which of the three feminist perspectives on development were they working with? What are the similar criticisms levelled against the WID and WAD perspectives? Read the excerpt on Sarah Longwe. Which development approach best explains her case? Read the Rathgeber (1990) piece attached. In one paragraph write what additional information you glean from reading it.  References XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Slide 50  UGRC 231: Gender and Development Session 4: Gender Issues in Social Development Lecturer: Dr. Akosua Darkwah Contact Information: [email protected] College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017  Goals and Objectives of Session 4: Gender Issues in Social Development By the end of this session, students should be able to: – Define social Development – Articulate the ways in which gender is implicated in two dimensions of social development; the health sector and the education sector. Slide 2 Topic 1: Why Social Development? It is important to note that development has to be holistic and comprehensive. By holistic, we mean that development should benefit all members of society. The development agenda should give prominence to social development as well as economic development. Slide 3  Topic I: What is Social Development? Social development refers to social and political conditions and institutions or structures which permit self-sustained growth in human welfare particularly for disadvantaged sections of society.” The Women’s Manifesto, 2004, page 23. Social development addresses social justice concerns with issues of human needs, Social justicerefers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. (Zejda et al 2006) Human necessities are the basic needs of life. Slide 4  Key elements of social justice Water and sanitation Basic education Primary healthcare Food security Social security Housing and economic services Infrastructure and transportation Slide 5  Gender Issues in Social Development There are gender differentials in the access and utilization of social development in many African societies as a result of -Patriarchy and patriarchal control of resources -Gender stereotypes which advantages men over women (eg education, food security). -Gender roles: women’s need for social development is greater than that of men due to the specialised roles they play (water and sanitation, primary health care, education, social security, housing) Slide 6  Topic 2: Gender and Health For this topic, we discuss the – ways in which gender is implicated in health – Use HIV/AIDS as a case study to understand the gendered nature of health Slide 7  What is health? Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO, 1948)  Health issues are very critical to development (See the Sustainable Development Goals). Without a healthy citizenry, development is difficult to achieve.  Africa bears about 70% of the global disease burden. Slide 8 How gendered identities shape health experiences and responses Men are supposed to be strong and healthy: are less likely to report their health problems; are likely to perceive pain, illness and disability differently Women are supposed to reproduce and nurture: they are more likely to talk about their problems, but also more likely to prioritise their families’ problems over their own and thus delay diagnosis, treatment and care (Allotey and Gyapong, 2005) Slide 9  Gender and risky behaviour smoking, drinking, unsafe sex, risky driving (masculine activities) poor eating practices (feminine activities) sexual behaviour and its implications for the health of men and women Slide 10  Gender and HIV/AIDS Of the 34 million people living with HIV in 2010, 22.9 million lived in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO/UNICEF 2011) Geographical differences – Southern Africa most affected (34% of global PLWHA) – West and Central Africa, relatively low A woman’s disease – Sub Saharan Africa (SSA): 57% of those infected are female. – three-quarters of all Africans between the ages of 15–24 who are HIV positive are women Slide 11  Why is HIV a women’s disease? – The biological explanation According to the WHO (2004), women are more susceptible to infection from HIV in any given heterosexual encounter because of the following three reasons: – Women have a greater area of mucous membrane exposed during sex. – More fluids are transferred from men to women during sex than vice versa. – Male sexual fluids have a higher viral content than women’s vaginal fluids. Slide 12  Why is HIV a women’s disease? – Socio-cultural explanations Rape myths: The belief in some parts of South Africa that the gang raping of young girls is a cure for HIV/AIDS has been noted as one reason why women are more likely to get HIV/AIDS (Masland et. al., 2000). Slide 13  Why is HIV a women’s disease? – Socio-cultural explanations Poor negotiation skills on the part of women: Although studies show that a high percentage of women are quite aware of the fact that condom use and sex with just one uninfected partner are two preventable measures against HIV/AIDS, far fewer of them are able to translate this into demanding condom use in their sexual encounters with partners (Andersson et al., 2004) Slide 14  Why is HIV a women’s disease? – Socio-cultural explanations Lack of bodily control: In many cultural contexts, women are expected to be passive participants in the sexual act who are expected to acquiesce to their partners. Saying no is not an option even if their sexual health is at stake. De Santis (2005) for example points to women who were being forced to sleep with their husbands who were blatantly having affairs with women whose husbands had died of HIV/AIDS. Slide 15  Why is HIV a women’s disease? – Socio-cultural explanations Forced Sex: Women’s limited control over their own bodies as illustrated above is undermined even further in cases of forced sexual encounters. Research around the world shows that women are much more likely to endure a forced sexual encounter than men are. In Ghana for example, the Ghana Youth and Reproductive Health Survey of 1998 reported that 2% of males and 12% of females were forced into their first sexual encounter. Slide 16  Why is HIV a women’s disease? – Socio-cultural explanations Domestic Violence: Several studies across the African continent have made the connection between domestic violence and susceptibility to HIV/AIDS. In a Rwandan study, van der Straten et al., (1998) showed that HIV positive women were more likely to report a history of physical violence and sexual coercion than HIV negative women. Slide 17 Gendered ramifications of HIV disease Women are more likely than men to suffer stigma, neglect and abuse because of their sero positive status than men are (Antwi and Atobrah 2009) Women are also more likely to be impoverished due to unproductivity. Care burden of HIV infected persons is more immense for women than for men. Far fewer men take care of HIV patients than women do (Atobrah 2010) Relative lower expenditure on female patients than on male patients. Slide 18  Topic 3: Gender and Education In this topic, we focus on three major issues: – The types and importance of education – The gender disparities in education both in terms of access and performance – The factors that lead to these discrepancies Slide 19  Why Education? Education usually consists of the formal, non formal and informal. Education is important for – Employment/career opportunities and development, – knowledge building and transfer, – empowerment and – general personal development. Education is so critical to development that it is one of the Sustainable Development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 Slide 20  Gender Parity in Lower Level Education Data from the Education Sector Performance Report of 2016 shows that Ghana has reached gender parity at the kindergarten, primary and junior high school level, Ghana has reached gender parity nationally. In the case of junior high school, this achievement was only attained in the 2015/2016 academic year. In deprived districts, however, gender parity has not been reached for either primary or junior high school level. At the senior high school level, gender parity is yet to be attained. Slide 21 Gender Parity in Tertiary Education Gender parity is yet to be achieved at university level as well. Only about a third of tertiary students are female (ISSER 2012). Private tertiary institutions fare better than the public tertiary institutions in terms of providing young women with access to education. In the 2012/2013 academic year, while 43% of students in private tertiary universities were girls, the same was true for 35% of all public tertiary institutions and 34% of public universities (ISSER 2014: 29). Female participation in university-based education decreases at each level of instruction. Recent NCTE figures for public universities indicate that female participation is highest at the certificate and diploma level with 46% being women, falling to 35% for Bachelors degrees, 29% for Masters degrees and 17% at the Ph.D. level (Morley et al 2010). Slide 22  Gender and Performance BECE results, 2015 BOYS GIRLS English 21.0 23.5 Mathematics 23.9 20.9 Social Studies 24.3 22.0 Science 24.0 20.6 Slide 23  Gender and Tracking In addition to girls underperforming in certain subjects as seen above, girls are also routinely tracked either by others (parents, teachers) or themselves into certain subjects/careers. Akuffo (1987) found that among the 1986 sixth form group of girls she studied, while 26% had opted for the arts, only 11% chose science. In addition, in the technical schools and polytechnics, girls stayed away from the auto-mechanic, electrical and building and construction subjects. Some schools will not even offer the opportunity to girls. So for example, one is not likely to find carpentry offered in a girls’ school. Slide 24  Factors affecting retention and performance of girls FOSTERAGE. Designed to offer girls training in domesticity, research suggests that such girls are largely prevented from acquiring the non-domestic skills that school offers. Rolleston (2010) has found that fostered girls in the Dagomba communities of rural Northern Ghana have low levels of access to basic education. They were 19% less likely to enroll in school and twice as likely to drop out after they did compared to non-fostered children. Slide 25  Factors affecting retention and performance of girls THE VALUE OF GIRLS’ EDUCATION: In Ghana, men are viewed as the breadwinners and women the homemakers. As such, girls’ education is devalued vis a vis boys’ education on the assumption that girls would end up as housewives in future. A young woman in senior high school captures this sentiment perfectly when she explains as follows “[Parents] believe that it is much more reasonable to send your male child to school. Even if your female child goes to school, she will get married, have kids, and work in the kitchen. They don’t seem to realize that there are women in Ghana who are making it.” (Lambert et al 2012: 12). Slide 26  Factors affecting retention and performance of girls RESPONSIBILITIES FOR REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR: Girls have less free time to learn because they are saddled with the responsibilities of cooking, fetching water, sweeping and washing bowls (Kneppers 2015: 68). Even when they still find the time to study, such girls would on average be more tired than their male counterparts who had not been saddled with care work and thus less effective at their efforts at studying. In addition, for those girls who have long distances to walk to go to school, such heavy burdens can make them late for school or even discourage them from going completely. Slide 27  Factors affecting retention and performance of girls CHILD MARRIAGE: According to the most recent nationally representative Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2011: 219), 7% of Ghanaian girls aged between 15 and 19 are currently married compared to less than 1% of boys. Given the fact that roughly 20% of Ghanaian children are not enrolled at the age appropriate level (ISSER 2012: 48), it is quite possible then that girls who get married before age 18 are married off before they complete what is considered in Ghana to be basic education, that is junior high school. Slide 28  Factors affecting retention and performance of girls PREGNANCY: Girls who get pregnant are perceived more as adults needing to fulfill their roles as mothers than as children needing to fulfill their roles as students. As such, in general, social and financial support for these girls to finish school is poor. The nationally representative Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 2014 shows that 15.7% of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 with primary school education had had one live birth. Such girls would be unable to continue with junior or senior high schooling unless they receive social support in terms of child-care for their babies as well as financial support to cater for both themselves and their children while in school. Slide 29  Factors affecting retention and performance of girls MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT IN SCHOOL: According to House et al (2012: 31), based on a sample of 183 girls aged 12 and above from 4 deprived communities in Ghana, 95% of girls miss school at some point during their menstrual period. This is largely because the girls lack the proper materials for managing menstruation, specifically pads as opposed to cloth. That coupled with poor facilities for clean up at school such as clean bathrooms and water lead girls to soil themselves causing embarrassment. In the House et al., (2012) study, between 43 and 60% of girls in peri-urban areas and 95% of girls in rural areas had experienced embarrassment during their last period. Missing school periodically because of periods is likely to affect performance. Slide 30  Activities and Assignments Undertake an assessment of the gender differences in any other of the elements of social development identified in this session besides education and health.  Summary We have accomplished five main tasks in this session: – Defined social development and the gendered dimensions – Identified the gendered dimensions of HIV/AIDS – Discussed the gender relations that produce these dynamics – Identified the gendered dimensions of access, performance and choices in the educational sector – Identified the factors that create these differences  References Akuffo, Agnes. 1987. “Teenage Pregnancies and School Drop-Outs, the Relevance of Family Life Education and Training to Girls’ Employment Opportunities.” In Sex Roles, Population and Development in West Africa, edited by C. Oppong. Pp London: James Currey. Allotey, P., Gyapong, M., & UNICEF. (2005). The gender agenda in the control of tropical diseases: a review of current evidence (No. TDR/STR/SEB/ST/05.1). Geneva: World Health Organization. Andersson, N., Ho-Foster, A., Matthis, J., Marokoane, N., Mashiane, V., Mhatre, S.,... & Salcedo, M. P. (2004). National cross sectional study of views on sexual violence and risk of HIV infection and AIDS among South African school pupils. bmj, 329(7472), 952. Antwi, P., & Atobrah, D. (2009). Stigma in the Care of People Living with HIV/AIDS and Cancer in Accra. Care of the seriously sick and dying: Perspectives from Ghana, 114-149. Atobrah, D. (2010). Caring for the Chronically Sick within Ga Families; A Study of Modern Innovations and Traditional Practices. PhD diss., Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. House, S., Mahon., T and S. Cavill. 2012. Menstrual hygiene matters: A resource for improving menstrual hygiene around the world. UK: Water Aid. Institute for Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER). 2012. Ghana Social Development Outlook. Accra: ISSER. Kneppers, A. M. A. 2015. Teenage Girls’ Perspectives on the Value of Education and School Dropout in Northern Ghana. Unpublished Mphil Thesis. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Slide 33  References Lambert, M., Perrino, E. S and E. M. Barreras. 2012. Understanding the Barriers to Female Education in Ghana. A Blue Kitabu Research Institute Project. Masland, T., Nordland, R., Kaheru, S., Santora, L., Haller, V., and Begley, S. (2000). 10 Million Orphans. News week, 135(3), 42–45. Morley, L., Leach, F., Lussier, K., Lihamba, A., Mwaipopo, R., Forde, L., & Egbenya, G. (2010). Widening participation in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an equity scorecard. ESRC/DFID Poverty Reduction Programme Research Project. Available online at: http://www. sussex. ac. uk/education/cheer/wphegt. Rolleston, C. 2010. Fosterage and Educational Access Among the Dagomba of Savelugu-Nanton, Ghana. CREATE Ghana Policy Brief 4, Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, Brighton. Van der Straten, A., King, R., Grinstead O., Vittinghoff, E., Serufiliria, A., and S. Allen. 1998. Sexual Coercion, Physical Violence and HIV infection among women in steady relationships in Kigali, Rwanda. AIDS and Behaviour 2 (1): 61-73. Slide 34  UGRC 231: Gender and Development Session 5: Gender Politics and Decision Making Lecturer: Dr. Akosua Darkwah Contact Information: [email protected] College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017  Goals and Objectives of Session 5: Gender, Politics and Decision Making By the end of this session, students should be able to: – Explain the various levels of power and decision making in African societies. – Describe the unequal representation at the various levels of power and decision making. – Show why it is important to achieve gender equality in power and decision making Slide 2 Topic 1: Power and decision making in Ghanaian homes Family level: This is the most basic authority structure in every society. Authority figures at the family level in Ghanaian society includes: – The household head, – The family head (abusuapanyin), – The lineage heads Slide 3  Power and decision making in Ghanaian homes Although not all households are headed by women the assumption in Ghana is that all households are headed by men. Yet, there may be single women heading households, divorced women heading households or widowed women heading households. The increasing numbers of female headed households does not necessarily mean women have increased power in household decision making. Younger men in the household or men outside of the household may take over the role of household head. Witness the situation where men marry the wives of their dead brothers. Secondly, even when there are men in a household, they may not necessarily be the breadwinner. Their wives may earn more than the men do. Depending on the extent to which the couple subscribes to rigid gender norms, this could produce tension in a household. Slide 4  Power and decision making in Ghanaian homes Within the lineage, the family head is almost always a male (abusuapanyin). Only in very rare situations will you find a female as the abusuapanyin. The general lack of women as family heads means that women in a family context are deprived of the opportunity of contributing to discussions that may affect them. A typical example is the situation where family lands are being sold and women are either not consulted or deprived of the incomes generated from the land sales (Tsikata and Yaro 2014) Slide 5 Topic 2: Power and decision making in traditional machineries Traditional machineries: This level of the authority structure includes community leaders, chiefs, queen mothers, elders, traditional priests and development chiefs (nkosuohene/hemaa). For this topic, we focus primarily on queenmothers vis a vis chiefs. Slide 6  Historical overview of women in politics: Yaa Asantewaa You should know about Yaa Asantewaa by now. She stands tall in our history for taking on the British during the third Anglo-Ashanti war of 1900. For this, the British punished her by exiling her to the Seychelles Islands (Donkoh, 2001). While Yaa Asantewaa is much acclaimed for her role in the Anglo-Ashanti war of 1900, her contributions to the political history of colonial Ghana goes beyond that. Some of the other important things she did include: – Being one of the signatories of the Treaty of Protection with the British in 1896. – Ruling in the absence of the Ejisu chief whom the British had exiled. During this period, she fiercely resisted the attempts of European merchants to try and encroach on Ejisu land (Donkoh, 2001, p. 4). Slide 7  Other notable Queenmothers Other important Queenmothers of the Asante kingdom include Adoma Akosua, Akyaawaa Oyiakwan, Nana Afua Kobi and Nana Dwaben Seewaa. Some of the roles they performed include: – officiating at religious festivals, – presiding over their own courts, – guiding councilors in government, – leading their citizens out of exile and – meeting with various foreign dignitaries to sign treaties or to discuss the potential for missionary work in their communities (Aidoo, 1985; Manuh, 1988) Slide 8  Limits to queenmother’s power Although Asante queenmothers also have courts, they do not discuss matters of land, but only family matters (Manuh 1988) While we have a national house of chiefs, we do not have a national house of queenmothers. Slide 9 British Influence on traditional female authority In 1905, the British attempted to institute the Kumasi Council of Chiefs as an administrative branch of the government and, in the process, did not include queen mothers. The colonial rulers did not view women fit to hold political positions. In fact, they often complained of the “old women” irritating various chiefs”. (Fallon 2008: 29). Slide 10  Topic 3: National machineries Modern and national machineries: This refers to the modern political authority structure adopted as part of the fourth Republic. It comprises unit and district assembly men and women, the legislature, judiciary and executive. For this topic, we focus primarily on the legislature (Parliamentarians) Slide 11  Mabel Dove Danquah, the journalist She was born in 1905 and died in 1984. She was Ghana’s first female journalist (Gadzekpo, 2005). In 1931, she begun writing for the Times of West Africa, the first daily newspaper in the Gold Coast, using the pen name Marjorie Mensah (Denzer, 2005; Gadzekpo, 2005). She went on to write for other newspapers in both Ghana and Nigeria using a range of pen-names. In 1951, she became the editor of a newspaper, the Accra Evening News, albeit for a period of only 6 months (Gadzepko, 2005). She wrote on a range of topics including women’s issues and relationships as well as politics. On issues of politics, she often wrote using the pen name Akosua Dzatsui (Denzer, 2005). Slide 12  Mabel Dove Danquah, the politician In 1954, she stood for a seat in the National Assembly on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP). She stood with two other men for the Ga Rural Electoral District seat and campaigned in the 137 communities that formed part of her constituency with financial support from constituents and family members. Eventually, she won 83% of the vote and thus became the first African woman elected to a national legislative body by popular vote (Denzer, 2005; Gadzekpo, 2005). As a member of the National Assembly, she focused on the concerns of her constituents – health, sanitation – as well as the specific needs of women, particularly education. She believed that an increase in the numbers of women with education would go a long way to change Gold Coast men’s perceptions of women (Denzer, 2005). Although she only served one term in the Assembly, she continued her interest in political matters by writing political commentaries. Slide 13  Kwame Nkrumah’s support for women’s political involvement Kwame Nkrumah incorporated women into the government system. The Representation of the People (Women Members) Act of 1959, (act no. 72), allowed the National Assembly to elect ten additional women to parliament. However, as the next slide shows, we have not made much progress on this front in the intervening years Slide 14 Election Party/ Women/ Percent Women/Total Percent Women Year President (PM) Total MPs Women MPs Ministers Ministers MPs MPs Ministers 1956 CPP/(Nkrumah) 0/104 0 0/15 0 (1960) CPP/Nkrumah (10/114) (8.8) 0/15 0 1965 CPP/Nkrumah 18/198 9.1 1969 PP/Busia 2/40 1.4 0/19 0 1979 PNP/Limann 5/140 3.6 1/20 5 1992 NDC/Rawlings 16/200 8 3/19 15.8 1996 NDC/Rawlings 18/200 9 3/21 14.3 2000 NPP/Kufuor 19/200 9.5 5/28 17.8 2004 NPP/Kufuor 25/230 10.9 6/28 21.4 2008 NDC/Mills 20/230 8.7 6/23 26.1 2012 NDC/Mahama 30/275 10.9 7/25 28 2016 NPP/Akufo-Addo 36/275 13.1 5/20 25 NPP/AkuffoAddo Slide 15  Factors that limit women’s participation in politics Women are not expected to be leaders so those who do so, find themselves at the mercy of the populace who question why they are standing including their marital status (Tamale 1999) When women stand for office, lots of rumour mongering ensues with suggestions that they are flirts or prostitutes (Musah and Gariba, 2013) and women not willing to put up with that are likely not to stand. It costs a lot of money to run for an election and women have less assets to put towards an election. According to Oduro et al. (2011, 34) note, based on a 2010 household survey in Ghana, “women own [only] 30.2 percent of total gross physical wealth” in the country. Slide 16  Why should we care about women’s representation in decision-making? “If women are not included in decision-making processes, their interests are overlooked; and if women are not included in proportion to their population numbers, the principle of parity is violated” (Chaney and Fevre 2002) It is not only enough to include women but also important to have high numbers of women in positions of power and decision making. Women are more likely to articulate women’s views, needs, issues and concerns. Slide 17  What does the evidence show? In Rwanda, soon after the genocide that broke out in 1994, the Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians (FFRP) worked closely with women’s organizations and government ministries to enact an ‘Inheritance Law’ that enabled women to inherit property and own property in their own names (Burnet 2008, 376–377). In Uganda as well, the increasing number of women in Parliament is reaping results. In 2009 alone a Domestic Violence Bill, an Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Bill and a Marriage and Divorce Bill, all with pro-women provisions, were advanced through parliament (Tripp 2010, 106– 107). Slide 18  Activities and Assignments Take a primary school English textbook and look at the pictures. To what extent do these pictures communicate the idea of men as leaders. Go online and find out what you can about female chiefs in Ghana. Read the article about Hannah Cudjoe. In what ways is she similar to Mabel Dove Danquah? Look up the InterParliamentary Union for statistics on women in parliaments around the world. How does Ghana fare in relation to other West African countries? Other African countries? Discuss the factors that make it difficult for women to participate in politics.  Summary This session focused on four main issues: – identifying the gendered dynamics of power and decision making at the level of the household, the traditional and the modern political structures. – Introducing different historical female figures such as Yaa Asantewaa and Mabel Dove Danquah. – Discussing factors that limit women’s participation in politics – Discussing the importance of women’s leadership.  References Aidoo, A. A. (1985). Women in the History and Culture of Ghana Research Review 1, 1, 14-51. Burnet, Jennie. 2008. Gender Balance and the Meanings of Women in Governance in Post-genocide Rwanda. African Affairs 107, 428: 361–368. Chaney, P., & Fevre, R. (2002). Is there a demand for descriptive representation? Evidence from the UK's devolution programme. Political Studies, 50(5), 897-915. Denzer, L. (2005). “Gender and Decolonization: A Study of Three Women in West African Public Life.” In Readings in Gender in Africa, edited by A. Cornwall, 217- 224. London: James Currey. Donkoh, W, J. (2001). Yaa Asantewaa: A Role model for Womanhood in The New Millennium. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies 1, 1, 1-9. Fallon, K. (2008) Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in sub-Saharan Africa, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Gadzekpo, A. (2005). “The Hidden History of Women in Ghanaian Print Culture.” In African Gender Studies: A Reader, edited by O. Oyewumi, 279-297. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan. Slide 21  References Manuh, T. (1988). The Asantehemaa's court and its jurisdiction over women: a study in legal pluralism. Research Review, 4(2), 50-66. Manuh, T. (1991). “Women and their Organisations during the Convention Peoples’ Party Period,” In The Work and Life of Kwame Nkrumah, edited by Kwame Arhin. Pp. 108-13. Accra:Sedco Publishing Limited. Musah, BI. and Gariba, I. (2013) ‘Women and political decision making: perspectives from Ghana’s parliament.’ Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences. vol 5, pp 443-476. Oduro, A., Baah-Boateng, W. and Boakye-Yiadom, L. (2011) Measuring the Gender Asset Gap in Ghana. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services. Sackeyfio-Lenoch, N. (2018) ‘Women’s international alliances in an emergent Ghana.’ Journal of West African History 4, 1, 27-56. Tamale, S. (1999) When Hens Begin to Crow: Gender and Parliamentary Politics in Uganda. Boulder: Westview Press. Tripp, Aili Mari. 2010. Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Tsikata, E. (1989). “Women’s Political Organizations, 1951-1987,” In The State, Development and Politics in Ghana, edited by E. Hansen and K. A. Ninsin. Pp 73-93. Dakar: CODESRIA. Tsikata, D., & Yaro, J. A. (2014). When a good business model is not enough: Land transactions and gendered livelihood prospects in rural Ghana. Feminist economics, 20(1), 202-226. Slide 22  UGRC 231: Gender and Development Session 6: Gender and the Economy Lecturer: Dr. Akosua Darkwah Contact Information: [email protected] College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017  Goals and Objectives of Session 6: Gender and the Economy By the end of this session, students should be able to: Discuss the nature and character of jobs available to women and men from pre-colonial times to present Explain the factors that have created the structural gendered inequalities inherent in Ghana’s economy Discuss the conditions that led to structural adjustment and its implications for Ghanaian women Slide 2 Topic 1: Gender in the pre-colonial and colonial economy For this topic, we discuss the career options available to Ghanaian women in the pre-colonial and colonial eras as well as its character Slide 3 Gender in the pre-colonial and colonial economy Ghanaian women have had a long history of trading for a living. European visitors to our part of the world during the mid-1800s noted the vibrant trading activities of women in those days. For example, In 1853, Cruickshank, a Scottish merchant, writing a travelogue about his experiences in the then Gold Coast noted: The whole population are traders to a certain extent. It is the delight of the African women to sit in the market-places under the trees, exposing their wares for sale, or to hawk them through the streets from door to door, and from village to village. Cruickshank 1853: II, 280-281 Aidoo (1985: 32) notes, however, that women were not involved in the lucrative aspects of trading until well into the latter part of the nineteenth century. This was due primarily to the fact that inter-state trade was the most lucrative, and included trade in items such as gold, slaves, kola nuts, monkey skins and ivory which were not easily available to women prior to the end of the nineteenth century. Slide 4 Gender in the pre-colonial and colonial economy A major factor that led women to dominate the trading sector in the latter part of the nineteenth century was the imposition of colonial rule. The British introduced the formal sector and drawing on their Victorian mentality, reserved it largely for men. Men therefore opted out of trade to work in the formal sector of the economy. Slide 5 Gender in the pre-colonial and colonial economy A few women entered the formal sector though. The first woman to enter the Ghanaian formal sector as a waged employee was Miss Elizabeth Ferguson, a native of Anomabo, who entered the colonial civil service in 1890. Having passed two civil service examinations, she was appointed the Postmistress and Telegraph Clerk in her native village. Forty years on, women constituted about 8% of the public service in 1939 (Perbi 1992). Slide 6 Gender in the pre-colonial and colonial economy Women who worked in the public service at this time could not continue working if they got married or had children. So whether trained as nurses or teachers, which were common career choices for the first women who went to school in Ghana, such women had to turn to dressmaking or baking or trading (informal sector jobs) upon marriage and motherhood (Darkwah 2014). Slide 7  Topic 2: Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy This topic focuses on the structural gendered inequalities in the Ghanaian economy and explores the factors that have led to this situation Slide 8  Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy Ghanaian women have quite high levels of labour force participation. – Comparing women’s work rates in thirty-eight developing countries, the World Fertility Survey conducted in 1985 found that women’s economic activity was highest in Ghana. – Indeed, Tzannatos (1999) has shown that for every 100 Ghanaian men working, there are 101 Ghanaian women. – More recently (2018), the MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs showed that globally, Ghana has the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs. Slide 9  Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy The high percentage of labour force participation, however, masks some inequalities: – Only half as many women as men are waged employees (GLSS VII) – Thrice as many women as men are self-employed in the non-agricultural sector – There continues to be gender stratification and gender segregation in the Ghanaian context (refer to Session 3, topic 2) Slide 10  Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy Although, generally, there are cases of gender stratification and segregation, there are some changes in this structure, although the change is very slow. One major change has been in the area of nursing. The availability of university degrees in nursing has greatly increased the number of men seeking to pursue a career in nursing. The increase in the numbers of men in nursing has led to what is described as the glass escalator effect: the few men in a predominantly female profession rise to the top of the profession very quickly. A typical example of this is the fact that although nursing remains a predominantly female job, increasingly the top hierarchy of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Council include men Slide 11  Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy Changes in the nature of gender segregation and stratification is also evident in the informal sector, particularly trade. Although rare, it is possible now to find men who trade in foods such as ‘check-check’ (Overa 2007) or even the sale of roasted plantains. However, when men engage in such ‘female’ jobs, they seek to in the words of Agadjanian (2002)‘regender’ the job. In other words, they seek to differentiate what they do from what females in that job do. So a man selling ‘check-check’ or roasted plantains might wear a suit and tie or store his earnings in a briefcase suggesting that he has a formal approach to his informal sector job. Slide 12  Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy Such structural gendered inequalities have implications for earnings: – Data collected over the last 25 years in the Ghana Living Standards Surveys show clearly that waged employees are the least poor in Ghana. The fact that twice as many men work in this sector as women implies then that more men are better off financially than women are. Slide 13  Gender in the post-colonial Ghanaian economy Structural gendered inequalities also have implications for benefits. Waged employees are the ones most likely to benefit from state legislature introduced to improve the conditions of work for women. Two significant forms of legislation in this regard are: – The equal pay for equal work Act passed in 1967 – The maternity leave with pay act instituted in 1971. Slide 14 Topic 3: Structural Adjustment Policies For this topic, we focus on Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs). There are several reasons for this. A major reason is because Ghana was one of the first countries in the world to adopt structural adjustment policies. We adopted the policies in 1983. Secondly, we followed the policies to the letter for the most part. By the early 1990s, the International Monetary Fund referred to Ghana as its star pupil. Third, although we no longer talk about structural adjustment, its impacts have been far-reaching extending even into current times. Slide 15  The conditions that led to SAP In 1960, Ghana’s real GDP per capita was $1049 while that of the Republic of South Korea was $690 (Human Development Report 1993). However, this did not last long. The average annual growth rate of GDP between 1967 and 1984 was negative (Stewart et al 1992: 54). Inflation rates hovered at an annual increase of fifty five percent per annum (Donkor 1997: 82) and reached an all time high of 123 percent in 1983 (Baah 2001: 2). During the same period, there was a decline in the production of the country’s major export earners. – Cocoa went from a production capacity of 557, 000 tons in the 1964/65 cocoa season to 100, 000 tons in the 1983/84 cocoa season. This dismal performance can be attributed to the fact that the state paid the farmers poorly, which led to a disinterest in cocoa production on their part (Toye 1990: 43). – Gold, the other major export earner declined from 724, 000 ounces in 1972 to 260, 000 ounces in 1983. The poor performance of the latter could be attributed to the inadequate injection of capital to cater for new investments, infrastructure and maintenance (Donkor 1997: 87). Slide 16  The conditions that led to SAP 1983, the year Ghana adopted the SAPs was also the year that a series of wild bush fires and severe drought reduced the production of major agricultural produce causing severe food shortages. The country was only able to meet two-thirds of its food requirement (Anyemedu, 1993:14) and had to rely largely on imported grains which was a huge drain on the national coffers That year also, Nigeria expelled Ghanaians living in Nigeria thus increasing the population of Ghanaians who needed to be fed during this period of famine. Slide 17  The main components of SAP A simplified way of understanding SAP policies is to understand them as neoliberal economic policies that "adjust" the "structures" of local economies in order that they may be integrated into the global economic system (Jaggar, 2002). The policies were designed to achieve two ends: decrease government expenditure while increasing state earnings so as to improve the abysmal performance of the economy. To decrease expenditure, a number of measures were implemented including: – Removing subsidies on social spending. A very important one was the removal of subsidies on health resulting in what is known as the cash and carry system – Selling off state owned enterprises so that the government no longer has the recurrent expenditure of salaries and so on. This explains why we no longer have State Transport Corporation, State Housing Corporation and so on. To increase incomes, a number of measures including the following were implemented: – The introduction of non-traditional exports such as mangoes and bananas – The widening of the tax net, specifically the Value Added Tax against which Ghanaians went on the kumepreko demonstrations in protest. Slide 18  Feminist critiques of Structural Adjustment Feminist economists such as Elson (1991) note that structural adjustment policies are based on macro-economic concepts that look at the economy as a whole in a gender-neutral fashion and not as a system consisting of both male and female individuals. As a result, structural adjustment is predicated on a number of assumptions that are male-biased by which she means that it results in an unfair proportion of the burdens of structural adjustment being placed on women. There are four such assumptions: – The first of these is the assumption that human resources are transferable from one activity to the other without cost. Thus, for example, when women’s labor resources are transferred from the food crop sector to the cash crop sector in a country’s quest to diversify its export base, women experience the cost in terms of their lack of equal access to the revenues generated from this activity. Slide 19 Feminist critiques continued – Second, since women are primarily responsible for the reproduction and maintenance of human resources across the globe, any economic policy that impinges on the welfare of the individuals in a family impacts heavily on women. As a result, with the removal of subsidies on health especially, much of the cost associated with the the sick shifted from the public to the private sphere. Women, traditionally seen as the nurturers were thus saddled with the additional responsibility of caring for the ill. During that period, in Ghana, about 48% of all sick Ghanaians did not seek any medical attention from any healthcare provider (Sowa, 2002:20). Women stayed home to look after these sick ones. Staying home to care for the sick meant lost wages. If women could not afford that, as recorded in Ivory Coast, they pulled daughters out of school to stay home with sick relatives, a move which cost girls in the long run (Weekes-Vagliani, 1992). Slide 20  Feminist critiques continued – The third assumption underlying structural adjustment is evident in the fact that labour, in and of itself, is treated as a nonproduced natural resource because the work involved in producing it is invisible since it is women’s work of caring, cooking, nurturing and nursing that produces labor. Yet, this invisible labour takes up women’s time which is constrained even further with the cutbacks in services particularly health since women are forced in the face of rising health costs to rely on themselves as the health care providers in their homes. The removal of subsidies on agricultural inputs combined with devaluations also resulted in the increasing cost of food, a necessity to reproduce labour. To stretch their incomes, women bought cheaper, less processed foods which required more female labour to render it edible. Slide 21  Feminist critiques continued Finally, macroeconomics assumes that houses are a unit headed by benevolent, male leaders, but we know from research in Africa that extra resources in a man’s pocket does not necessarily trickle down to the wife and children. The rising costs associated with devaluations in a country implementing policies undergirded by a neo-liberal framework are thus endured primarily by women who have to find ways and means of miraculously stretching their meager resources so that it can continue to provide for their families. Slide 22  Feminist critiques continued Despite the gendered implications of a neo-liberal economic framework as outlined by Elson (1991) women have not had much of a role in the decision-making process that led to the adoption of structural adjustment policies in various countries. – Bortei-Doku (1992:356) notes that women’s invincibility in the SAP Planning Mechanism in Ghana was evident in the fact that the economic management team had only one female member. – In addition, the Private Sector Advisory Committee, which was set up to enhance the capacity of the private sector to serve as the engine of economic growth in Ghana, had a technical team of eleven, of whom only one was female. Hutchful (2002) in summarising this situation states that women were reduced to wards of the reforms, agents, but not initiators of adjustment. Slide 23  Impact of SAP on women By the time the exercise was over, although only 21% of civil service employees were women, 35% of the public sector employees who were retrenched or redeployed were women (Haddad et al 1995: 892). This was because women, the majority of whom had low levels of education, were concentrated at the lower echelons of the public sector. Given the colonial history also, women were incorporated into the public service last and the retrenchment exercise had relied on a ‘last in, first out’ policy, so women were more susceptible to being laid off. These workers did not have the skills to join the private sector or resources to set up businesses of their own, so they ended up in the already bloated informal sector (Clark and Manuh 1991). Increased care burdens for the sick (Weekes-Vagliani 1992) and in the production of meals to reproduce families because of cuts in subsidies (Elson 1991). Slide 24  Activities and Assignments Describe the most surprising thing you learnt from studying topics 1 and 2 in this session. Do a basic interview with a family member in their 60s and ask them to tell you what they remember about the economic hardships of the 1980s and what it meant for Ghanaian men and women. Find out what you can about the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Costs of Adjustment (PAMSCAD). Do you think it was successful? Why? Why not?  Summary This session focused on the gendered nature of the economy in pre-colonial, colonial times as well as the post-independence era. It highlighted both the situation on the ground and the factors that created this situation. The final topic in this session discussed the male bias inherent in structural adjustment and its ramifications for women.  References Agadjanian, V. 2002. Men doing “women’s work”: Masculinity and Gender Relations among street vendors in Maputo, Mozambique. The Journal of Men’s Studies 10 (3): 329-342. Aidoo, A. A. 1985. Women in the History and Culture of Ghana. Research Review 1 (1): 14-51. Anyemedu, K. 1993. The Economic Policies of the PNDC, in E. Gyimah-Boadi, ed., Ghana Under PNDC Rule. Dakar: CODESRIA, 13-47. Aryeetey, E. 1994. “Private Investment Under Uncertainty in Ghana,” World Development 22 (8): 1211-1221. Baah, A. Y. 2001. “The Economy of Ghana”, In The Social Dimension of Structural Adjustment in Ghana, edited by A. Y. Baah, 1-13. Accra: Hallow Ads Limited. Bortei-Doku Aryeetey, E. 2000. “The Participation of Women in the Ghanaian Economy,” In Economic Reforms in Ghana: The Miracle and the Mirage, edited by E. Aryeetey, J. Harrigan and M. Nissanke, Pp 321-343. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services. Clark, G and T. Manuh. 1991. “Women Traders in Ghana and the Structural Adjustment Programme” In Structural Adjustment and African Women, edited by C. Gladwin, Pp Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Darkwah, A. K. 2014. Structural Gendered Inequalities in the Ghanaian Economy. In Sociology and Development Issues in Ghana: A Reader in Sociology, edited by D. S. Dzorgbo and S. Tonah. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services. Pp. 137-151. Donkor, K. 1997. Structural Adjustment and Mass Poverty in Ghana. Brookfield: Ashgate. Elson, Diane. 1991. “Male Bias in Macro-Economics: The Case of Structural Adjustment” In Male Bias in the Development Process, edited by D. Elson. Pp.164-190. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Slide 27  References Jaggar, A. M. (2002). A Feminist Critique of the Alleged Southern Debt. Hypatia,17(4), 119-142. Haddad, L., Brown, Lynn R., Richter, Andrea and Smith, L. 1995. The Gender Dimensions of Economic Adjustment Policies: Potential Interactions and Evidence to Date. World Development 23 (6): 881-896. Hutchful, E. 2002. Ghana’s Adjustment Experience: The Paradox of Reform. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services. Overa, R. When men do women’s work: Structural Adjustment, Unemployment and Changing Gender Relations in the Informal Economy of Accra, Ghana. The Journal of Modern African Studies 45 (4): 539-563. Perbi, A. 1992. Women in the Government Service in the Pre-Independence and Post-Independence Periods of Ghana's History. Greenhill Journal of Administration, 8(1), 66-84. Sowa, N. K. (2002). An Assessment of Poverty Reducing Policies and Programs in Ghana. A Presentation at a MIMAP Workshop on Assessing Poverty Policies to be held at Rabat, Morocco January 25-31, 2002; sponsored by the IDRC. Stewart, F., Lall, S and Wangwe, S. 1992. Alternative Development Strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. New York St. Martin’s Press. Toye, John. 1990. “Ghana’s Economic Reforms, 1983-7: Origins, Achievements and Limitations”, In Towards Economic Recovery in sub-Saharan Africa: Essays in Honour of Robert Gardiner, edited by J. Pickett and H. Singer, 42-64. London and New York: Routledge. Tzannatos, Z. (1999). Women and labor market changes in the global economy: Growth helps, inequalities hurt and public policy matters. World development, 27(3), 551-569. Weekes-Vagliani, Winifred. 1992. “Structural Adjustment and Gender in Cote d’Ivoire”, In Women and Adjustment Policies in the Third World, edited by H. Afshar and C. Dennis, 117-149. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Slide 28