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Title:Uses and Abuses of the Concept of 'Female-Headed Households' in Research on Agrarian Transformation and Policy
Author:Peters, Pauline E.ISNI
Book title:Women Wielding the Hoe: Lessons from Rural Africa for Feminist Theory and Development Practice
Year:1995
Pages:93-108
Language:English
Geographic terms:Botswana
Malawi
Subjects:female-headed households
Cultural Roles
Development and Technology
agriculture
Sex Roles
research
Abstract:In this review of the concept of 'female-headed households', the author draws on a burgeoning literature as well as her own research experience in Botswana and, currently, in Malawi. She shows how the emergence of the concept of female-headed households has contributed to and benefited from policy analysis and research on agrarian change and economic development. On the other hand, several analytical distortions have emerged from the use of the concept of female-headedness. The author sets out both the contributions and the perils of the concept and indicates some new conceptual and methodological directions. Researchers and practitioners need to be self-critical about the categories and approaches they devise for analysis and practice. In particular, surveys and other research methods should not take 'the household' as the only unit of enquiry and analysis. 'Intra-household' and 'supra-household' relations should also be addressed. Bibliogr.
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