“Helping” or “Appropriating”? Gender Relations in Shea Nut Production in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT

The potential for the development of shea industries to increase women’s incomes is the focus of a number of development interventions in rural West Africa. However, concerns have been voiced over the potential effects of increased commercialization on women’s rights over this resource. This study examines women’s participation and rights over shea production in a context of increasing commercialization in northern Ghana through a survey of 90 producers and eight oral histories. Although shea incomes are frequently described in the literature as falling under women’s control, joint spending decisions for shea income were reported by half of the married women surveyed. This does not appear to be an outcome of growing assertion of men’s rights over shea trees themselves but rather is explained, by women, largely in relation to their husbands’ involvement in nut production.

KEYWORDS:

• Commercialization
• decision making
• gender
• Ghana
• shea
• Vitellaria paradoxa

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Chris Bakaweri and staff at SNV for assistance in the field, all those that took part in the survey, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the FAO or other participating organizations.

Additional information

Funding

The study on which this paper is based was made possible through the All ACP Agricultural Commodities Programme with funding from the European Union. It was commissioned by the Trade and Markets Division, FAO and implemented with the support of SNV Ghana.