Prostitution or partnership? Wifestyles in Tanzanian artisanal gold-mining settlements

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Gendered vulnerabilities to climate change: insights from the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia

“…In a few settlements visited in Northern Kenya (field notes: Nitya Rao, October 2015), domestic arrangements appeared fluid, with a large number of femaleheaded households, engaging in a range of transient relationships to help survival (cf. Bryceson, 2013). Across other regions in Africa too, one finds a rise in the number of female-headed households.…”

“…It sets up an artificial binary, often oppositional, between women and men, with the former virtuous and the latter not, rather than viewing gender relations as embracing a host of emotions and actions, involving both cooperation and conflict (Sen, 1990). Bryceson (2013) documents the range of relationships and partnerships -economic and sexual -that are being formed and negotiated between men and women in a context of stress and competition for scarce resources in Tanzanian gold-mining settlements; a similar phenomenon is visible in semi-arid and arid settlements in Northern Kenya (field notes: Nitya Rao, October 2015).…”

Modernity and Matrifocality: The Feminization of Kinship?

“…The experience of migration to towns and cities in developing countries is familiar to ever increasing numbers of women and men, and is associated with changing conjugalities in destination areas (e.g. Locke et al., , for Vietnam), and new forms of conjugality that defy categories of wife, prostitute or singleton (see Bryceson et al., , for artisanal mining communities in Tanzania). Source localities also experience conjugal shifts, and male out‐migration can re‐emphasize the domestic and motherhood for wives who remain in rural villages (see Rao, , for Bangladesh).…”

The role of gender in the extractives industries

“…All of these are themes that recur throughout the literature and are discussed at greater length below. She makes a strong case for recognizing women's agency in the mining sector, thereby moving beyond the portrayal of women as victims of the negative impacts of mining: an opinion shared by a number of other scholars, such as Mahy (2011), O'Faircheallaigh (2013, and Bryceson et al (2013aBryceson et al ( , 2013b. This is a useful contribution to the debate about gender in the mining sector.…”

“…They exhort policy makers to work at empowering women within the industry, tackling gendered power relations and structural inequalities rather than excluding women from the field. Some of the most interesting recent scholarship documenting the 'complex interplay of competing sexual desires, emotional needs, social status, daily practicalities and economic security objectives' (Bryceson et al 2013a: 50) of women in informal mining settlements has been produced by Bryceson et al (2013aBryceson et al ( , 2013b in Tanzania. They reject the assumption that most women's roles in these communities revolve around prostitution, and have instead developed the term 'wifestyles' to describe the many different relational forms pursued by women and men in these places.…”