Women and Class Formation in a Dependent Economy: Kisangani Entrepreneurs

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Book chapter

Title:	Women and Class Formation in a Dependent Economy: Kisangani Entrepreneurs
Author:	MacGaffey, Janet
Book title:	Women and Class in Africa
Year:	1986
Pages:	161-177
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:	social classes women entrepreneurs women Cultural Roles economics Labor and Employment Sex Roles
Abstract:	In Kisangani, one of Zaire's three principal cities, some women have achieved success in business and commerce independently from men; others have manipulated their connections with men to get a start in business but have thereafter achieved enough autonomy and success in managing their affairs to make them significant in business in their own right. They have thus succeeded individually in attaining a position in the small commercial middle class that is emerging in the city. They find it more in their interest to establish their own position as members of the middle class than to further female solidarity across class lines. The data presented on Kisangani businesswomen shows the intertwining of gender struggle and class formation, and the way in which the processes of formation of this class have been gender-specific. Notes, ref.