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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | When Sex Becomes a Critical Variable: Married Women and Extra-Domestic Work in Lusaka, Zambia |
Author: | Hansen, Karen T. |
Year: | 1980 |
Periodical: | African Social Research |
Issue: | 30 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 831-849 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Zambia |
Subjects: | women's employment Women's Issues Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Labor and Employment |
Abstract: | In this paper, which is concerned with urban women's work opportunity, the author tries to explain, how and why sex has become a factor that critically affects equality. More specifically, to explore this question she uses data from her study (1973) of why poor, middle-aged, married women in a peri-urban township in Lusaka, have difficulties finding salaried work. In explaining why sex becomes a critical variable, the author briefly discusses two interrelated sets of factors: 1. has to do with the historical processes through which opportunities for economic participation became unevenly distributed, as external forces subordinated economic activities first to the needs of the colonial power and then to those of the world market. This external dependency influenced the recruitment of labour and set into motion internal forces that make this process continue. In such a socio-economic structure a small grouping benefits while the majority endures hardships. That majority comprises, of course, members of both sexes; 2. concerns the way in which this process affects the work roles of the women studied, how they in turn respond to them, and how they affect some other urban women. Notes, ref., tab. |