Evading male control: women in the second economy in Zaire

bibliographic database
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Book chapter

Title:	Evading male control: women in the second economy in Zaire
Author:	MacGaffey, J.
Book title:	Patriarchy and class: African women in the home and the workforce
Year:	1988
Pages:	161-176
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:	informal sector women
Abstract:	In the Belgian Congo the colonial State organized the penetration of capitalism and a class structure which supported the interests of metropolitan capital. In this process, women's position in society worsened. In independent Zaire, upward mobility into the new dominant class depended on education and position in the State, from which women, with few exceptions, were excluded. But changes in the basic political and economic structures, in particular the weakening of the administrative capacity of the State, the indigenization of foreign capital, the deterioration of the formal economy, and shifts in the class structure, have recently brought about considerable improvement for at least some urban women. Women have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the second economy and have found strategies for becoming autonomous and, in some cases, extremely wealthy, sometimes independently of men by operating in arenas beyond their control, sometimes by using men to gain access to resources. Bibliogr., notes, ref.