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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Women in Production: The Economic Role of Women in Nineteenth Century Lesotho
Author:Eldredge, E.A.ISNI
Year:1991
Periodical:Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
Volume:16
Issue:4
Period:Summer
Pages:707-731
Language:English
Geographic term:Lesotho
Subjects:Sotho
economic history
women's work
Economics and Trade
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Labor and Employment
History and Exploration
Historical/Biographical
Cultural Roles
economics
Sex Roles
Abstract:This article analyses women's contribution to the process of economic expansion in 19th-century Lesotho. The author's goal is to demonstrate that women were a central force generating economic change and that African economic history cannot be understood without reference to women. She begins with a brief survey of the productive activities of Sotho women in agriculture and in the household, with particular attention to labour time and to specialization, which allowed for the more efficient allocation of labour. In the second section she classifies women's productive activities and demonstrates the critical contribution of women in the process of accumulation and economic growth. In the third section she demonstrates that women played a deliberate role in initiating economic expansion in 19th-century Lesotho. However, their initiatives took place in the context of relative powerlessness: women exercised independent control and decisionmaking in certain spheres of production, but in the context of severe constraints. In the final section the author raises questions concerning the relations between women, production, and power in order to shed light on the origins of women's subordination in Africa. Notes, ref.
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