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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Agriculture, Gender and Exploitation: With Example from Southern Africa
Author:Nindi, B.C.ISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Journal of Eastern African Research and Development (ISSN 0251-0405)
Volume:24
Pages:35-41
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Southern Africa
Subjects:gender relations
women
small farms
rural households
sociology
Sex Roles
agriculture
Economic and social development
Development and Technology
Cultural Roles
Labor and Employment
economics
Abstract:As a result of two fundamental misrepresentations in stereotyping low-income communities there is still a widespread tendency to assume that the male-headed nuclear family is the dominant household type and that the sex division of labour within the family (man the producer, his wife the reproducer) is the 'natural' order. This abstract, ideal model fails to recognize the triple role of African women in productive, reproductive and managing work, and the fact that low-income households are not homogeneous in terms of family structure. However, a 'gender and households' approach also entails a number of problems: the epistemological status of the household as a category is problematic; the assumption that household resources are shared for the common good of all members is invalid for many societies; focus on the household may obscure women's activities in the wider society. Planning for women requires a reconceptualization of their role in society and a recognition that women's needs are not always the same as men's. Africa's women will always be marginalized in planning theory and social practice unless theoretical feminist concerns are adequately translated into planning terms within the framework of gender planning, recognized in its own right as a specific planning approach. Bibliogr., sum.
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