Women's wealth status and factors on cotton farms in West Africa

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Conference paper of Faridath ABOUDOU and Michel FOK - 2020

  • Literature reference
  • Author
  • Faridath ABOUDOU and Michel FOK
  • English title of the work
  • Women's wealth status and factors on cotton farms in West Africa
  • Title of the work
  • Women's wealth status and factors on cotton farms in West Africa
  • Year of publication
  • 2020
  • Author's email
  • michel.fok@cirad.fr
  • Book title
  • 7th World Cotton Research Conference
  • Countries concerned
  • Burkina Faso
    Togo
    Benin
  • Associated thesauruses
  • Colire
  • Keywords Colire
  • Family living comparison
    Inter-country comparison
    Access to welfare services
    Access to telecommunication
    Women's' contribution to production
    Women's fieldworks
    Change in women's contribution
    Effects of women's production contribution
    Men/women equality
    Women's work load
    Women's' income
    Income estimation
    Income level
    Cotton income
  • Saved on
  • 2020-09-22
  • Modifed on
  • 2020-09-22
  • Administrated by
  • Fok Michel
  • Abstract
  • Background
    Gender mainstreaming in rural development has mainly led to appraise women's performance in agricultural production comparatively to men. Studies are rare in understanding the impact of women's agricultural role on their own economic plight, even in Africa where women often have the opportunity to carry out various economic activities and to produce for their own account in fields. Our study in 2014 compensate for the lack by analyzing the characteristics, economic activities, income and assets of women on cotton-growing farms in relation to the characteristics of their husbands who headed farms. It was conducted in three countries with distinct cotton production evolution: continuous and great increase in Burkina Faso, chaotic in unstable cotton sector in Benin and stagnating in Togo having been put aside for decades by the international community.
    Results
    The economic fate of heads men on cotton farms was somewhat related to the status of cotton production in the studied countries, but much less clearly when that of women's was considered. Men in Togo lagged behind but men in all countries had their wealth positively influenced by their number of wives. The economic situation of women was generally weak but it was better particularly with regard to animal assets in Benin. Several factors affected women's wealth, notably that of their husbands.
    Conclusion
    Tradition keeps on, through the status of polygamy, but the observed men-women synergy in wealth accumulation is a positive sign that should persist because of a context of increasing economic exchanges in rural areas. The mentioned synergy deserves to be integrated into the approaches to deal with gender and development issues.
  • English abstract
  • Background
    Gender mainstreaming in rural development has mainly led to appraise women's performance in agricultural production comparatively to men. Studies are rare in understanding the impact of women's agricultural role on their own economic plight, even in Africa where women often have the opportunity to carry out various economic activities and to produce for their own account in fields. Our study in 2014 compensate for the lack by analyzing the characteristics, economic activities, income and assets of women on cotton-growing farms in relation to the characteristics of their husbands who headed farms. It was conducted in three countries with distinct cotton production evolution: continuous and great increase in Burkina Faso, chaotic in unstable cotton sector in Benin and stagnating in Togo having been put aside for decades by the international community.
    Results
    The economic fate of heads men on cotton farms was somewhat related to the status of cotton production in the studied countries, but much less clearly when that of women's was considered. Men in Togo lagged behind but men in all countries had their wealth positively influenced by their number of wives. The economic situation of women was generally weak but it was better particularly with regard to animal assets in Benin. Several factors affected women's wealth, notably that of their husbands.
    Conclusion
    Tradition keeps on, through the status of polygamy, but the observed men-women synergy in wealth accumulation is a positive sign that should persist because of a context of increasing economic exchanges in rural areas. The mentioned synergy deserves to be integrated into the approaches to deal with gender and development issues.