African Women and Power: Labor, Gender and Feminism in the Age of Globalization

Okome, Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké

doi:10.1177/0307920105054451

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Moreover, the arrival of a higher percentage of unmarried African females relative to their non-African counterparts suggests that contemporary female migrants from Africa exercise a greater level of agency in their migration decisions. More importantly, these perspectives underscore arguments made by scholars such as Okome (2005), who suggest that African women now exercise and deploy power in ways that are not always recognize in existing studies. At the same time, the weak association between marriage and African female immigration patters suggests that the same migration-inducing factors that stimulate male migration from Africa are also critical to informing the migration decisions of African females.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

African female immigration to the United States and its policy implications

Thomas

Logan

2012

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des étud

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This study examines the dynamics of female African immigration and settlement in the United States and discusses the research and policy implications for these processes. It highlights a significant surge in female immigration from African than non-African countries in recent years. This surge is driven by female immigration from Africa’s countries most populous countries, from countries affected by civil conflicts, and from English-speaking countries in the region. African women are also more likely to arrive as unmarried single than other female immigrants. In addition, they had the highest prevalence of Bachelors, Masters, or Doctorate degrees among women in the US. African females were also about twice more likely to be enrolled in US Educational institutions compared to other women. Those in the labor force were more likely to work as nursing professionals than in technical occupational groups such as engineering and computing. The study concludes by discussing the research and policy implications of these findings for countries in the developing world.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

African female immigration to the United States and its policy implications

Thomas

Logan

2012

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des étud

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“…For the Africans among these, Western imperialism in the world's political economy is mimicked by that in the academe, and in social relations. Thus, there exists a presumption of Western feminist superiority and its capacity to lead the worldwide feminist movement, which is not borne out by historical fact (Steady, 2002;Okome, 2003Okome, , 2005.…”

Section: Incongruity Of Active Participation and Insignificant Gains:mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the politics of inclusion produced the heady idealism of a united front of all women against the marginalization and oppression of patriarchy, the promise of unity in the face of adversity never materialized; there was a hierarchy that privileged Western women who were the controllers or conduits of funding, the published scholars whose ideas were widely disseminated worldwide, the advisors that recommended and prescribed solutions to women in other regions of the world, the dominant voice at international conferences, workshops and negotiations to whose advantage the mobilization of bias worked, since they were able to set the agenda to which women from other parts of the world respond (Okome 2005).…”

Section: Incongruity Of Active Participation and Insignificant Gains:mentioning

confidence: 99%

Active Participation, Insignificant Gains: The Elusiveness of Gender Equality for African Women in the Liberal Global Economy

Okome

2020

Preprint

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By the middle of the 20 th Century, following the groundbreaking work of Esther Boserup, feminist analysis began to acknowledge the active participation of African women in their countries' economic systems as producers. However, it was quite obvious, even to Boserup that while there was no doubt about women's participation, historically the gains from trade devolve disproportionately to men, a problem compounded by the fact that the institutions that manage the trading system locally, nationally, regionally and globally are dominated by men. Unfortunately, contemporary awareness that the gains from trade are uneven has not yielded the transformation of the global political economy such that the observed disparities are corrected. These disparities have extraordinary distributional consequences for gender equality, since they stimulate differential responses between economic sectors, producers, regions in national and international economic systems, between advanced industrial and post industrial developed countries as compared with the predominantly agrarian, nonindustrial, developing nations, or the Northern and Southern hemispheres, as well as between and within African countries. Advancements in trade and the profitability therefrom have generated prodigious amounts of wealth. Invariably, some of the gainers from trade are women. But even as some women gain from trade, most others suffer and are excluded from the benefits of trade. Given that the world has also widely acknowledged that there is a need to promote gender equity and equality, and many international instruments attest to this commitment, why are the disparities in gains from trade in the global economic system still heavily weighted in favor of men as compared with women? Facilitating equitable and equal gains from trade not only contributes to actualizing stated commitments to end all forms of discrimination against women, the goals of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, it also devolves positively to the enhancement of human well-being. Given that African countries have affirmed their commitment to these various international instruments and purport to be seized of the necessity of achieving gender equality, concrete gains in gender equality in trade would more demonstrably underline their commitment. With a focus on: The Multilateral Trading System and WTO Agreements; Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and their impacts on African Women; and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs): Lessons Learned from RECs (and possibly SROs), this paper will consider post 1945 African political economy, examine the continued parlous gains made by African women and attempt to explain the domestic and international causes and consequences of their marginalization. It will also suggest some remedies.

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“…The uneducated wives reported that they help but it was less frequent. (72) Oyeronke Oyewumi (1997), Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome (2005), andMcIntosh (2009) also write that in the Yoruba context, the concept of gender has always differed from the Victorian notion of separate spheres for women and men, wherein men were viewed as strong, rational, economic providers, and women were the weaker, emotive group with their primary responsibilities as wives and homemakers. Yoruba culture lacks such gender distinctions, with both sexes sharing labor roles outside the domestic setting in commerce, production, and the service industry.…”

Section: Women and Property Rights In Yoruba Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Patriarchy and Property Rights among Yoruba Women in Nigeria

Aluko¹

2015

Feminist Economics

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In most patriarchal societies, women's property rights are often achieved vicariously, usually through their husbands. By contrast, among the Yoruba of Nigeria, women have some levels of autonomy and independence such that they can accumulate property to which their husbands have no claim, yet they customarily do not have any inheritance right to their husbands' property. This study examines how this gender-equitable property rights regime affects gender relations at the household and societal levels through in-depth interviews conducted in 2012 with fifty-six purposively selected women property owners who lived in urban Ibadan, Nigeria. Findings include that though economic power has improved the status of the women and contributes to development of their communities, it has not yet translated into equity in decision making. More than economic power is required to attain equality. The capability of defining goals and acting upon them is also critical.

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African Women and Power: Labor, Gender and Feminism in the Age of Globalization

Cited by 15 publications

References 9 publications

African female immigration to the United States and its policy implications

African female immigration to the United States and its policy implications

Active Participation, Insignificant Gains: The Elusiveness of Gender Equality for African Women in the Liberal Global Economy

Patriarchy and Property Rights among Yoruba Women in Nigeria

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