Women's empowerment in cotton growing, a case in Northern Benin
- Abstract
- In Africa, a few studies indicate that women have managed to embark upon cash cropping to improve their financial status, but none has ever thoroughly addressed the case of cotton or considered the impacts beyond financial terms. As an illustration of the interrelated dimensions of resource, agency and achievements in women's empowerment, this article addresses the economic and social impacts for women growing cotton and explains them by analyzing the characteristics of these women, in relation to the characteristics of their husbands and of the other women, in the perspective of intra-household negotiations and social norms in men-women role sharing and in the specific context and recent history of cotton production in Benin.
Our study found a noticeable share of 20% of farms where women and their husbands simultaneously earned cotton income and where women spent less time in the fields while enjoying better decision-making power. This new status of income generation and role sharing within households is a win-win situation. It benefitted from a change in social norms which required an extra-household chock, a period of cotton sector uncertainty in an exacerbated monetization context which weakened men's financial position and made them more open to women's contribution. As the context of monetization keeps on prevailing in all African countries, it should favor further women's empowerment.
- English abstract
- In Africa, a few studies indicate that women have managed to embark upon cash cropping to improve their financial status, but none has ever thoroughly addressed the case of cotton or considered the impacts beyond financial terms. As an illustration of the interrelated dimensions of resource, agency and achievements in women's empowerment, this article addresses the economic and social impacts for women growing cotton and explains them by analyzing the characteristics of these women, in relation to the characteristics of their husbands and of the other women, in the perspective of intra-household negotiations and social norms in men-women role sharing and in the specific context and recent history of cotton production in Benin.
Our study found a noticeable share of 20% of farms where women and their husbands simultaneously earned cotton income and where women spent less time in the fields while enjoying better decision-making power. This new status of income generation and role sharing within households is a win-win situation. It benefitted from a change in social norms which required an extra-household chock, a period of cotton sector uncertainty in an exacerbated monetization context which weakened men's financial position and made them more open to women's contribution. As the context of monetization keeps on prevailing in all African countries, it should favor further women's empowerment.