Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Abstract

Recent research underscores the continued importance of gender in rural Africa. Analysis of interactions within households is becoming more sophisticated and continues to reject the unitary model. There is some evidence of discriminatory treatment of girls relative to boys, although the magnitudes of differential investments in health and schooling are not large and choices seem quite responsive to changes in opportunity costs. Social norms proscribing and prescribing male and female economic behavior remain substantial, extending into many domains, especially land tenure. Gender constructions are constantly evolving, although there is little evidence of rapid, transformative change in rural areas.agriculture | development | women T he economic lives of people in many parts of rural Africa are deeply gendered. Farm activities have sex valences. Handling the plow is work for men, and guiding the oxen is work for women; rice is planted by women, and cotton is managed by men. Rural households often invest less in girl children than boy children. Governments assign programs and projects to the different sexes: microfinance for women and pesticides for men. Local judges interpret custom and law as properly gendered. A wife hoping to inherit her husband's land may find herself evicted by his brother. These are illustrative generalizations, of course, and not facts. There is considerable variation across regions and ethnic groups and over time. However, there can be little doubt that gendered structures and choices and ensuing gendered life trajectories are important and complex. This article reviews an expanding literature that examines the mechanisms involved, programs and policies designed around these mechanisms, and effects of public action and large-scale change regarding gendered social structures in rural Africa.Gender is best thought of as a set of shared discursive habits relating to males and females. These habits encompass but are not limited to cognitive characterizations of gendered behaviors, expectations about gendered actions, and gendered decision algorithms. The habits guide people when they think about how other people might react to proposed action. Sometimes, the habits agree with a person's reasoned judgment, and sometimes, they do not, in which case a person might experience mental distress and cognitive dissonance. The actions under consideration range from the ordinary chores of everyday living to the infrequent and worrisome markers of life changes and from the private utterances intended for oneself to formal public pronouncements. These actions by individuals are evaluated by people in a community, and over time in-

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