‘I think a woman who travels a lot is befriending other men and that's why she travels’: mobility constraints and their implications for rural women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This article is concerned with the implications of practices, politics and meanings of mobility for women and girl children in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Women and girls commonly face severe mobility constraints which affect their livelihoods and their life chances. The article reflects on their experiences in rural areas where patriarchal institutions (including the gender division of labour, which places great emphasis on female labour contributions to household production and reproduction), and a patriarchal discourse concerning linkages between women's mobility, vulnerability and sexual appetite, shape everyday social practices and material inequalities. This compounds the physical constraints imposed by poor accessibility (to services and markets) associated with poor roads and inadequate transport in both direct and more complex ways. The article draws on field research conducted in diverse socio-cultural and agro-ecological contexts in western and southern Africa (principally southern Ghana, southern Malawi and northern and central Nigeria) to explore the impacts of relative immobility and poor service access on women and girls. Three (interconnected) issues are examined in some detail: access to markets, access to education and access to health services. Possible interventions to initiate positive change are considered.

Este artículo trata sobre las implicaciones de las prácticas, de las políticas y de los significados de movilidad para las mujeres y niñas en las áreas rurales del África subsahariana. Las mujeres y niñas comúnmente se enfrentan con serias limitaciones de movilidad, las cuales afectan sus medios de sustentación y sus oportunidades de vida. El artículo reflexiona sobre sus experiencias en las áreas rurales, donde las instituciones patriarcales (incluyendo la división del trabajo según el género, la cual pone gran énfasis en las contribuciones del trabajo femenino en la producción y reproducción del hogar), y un discurso patriarcal sobre la relación entre la movilidad de las mujeres, la vulnerabilidad y el apetito sexual, dan forma a las prácticas sociales cotidianas y a desigualdades materiales. Esto empeora las limitaciones físicas impuestas por la mala accesibilidad (a los servicios y a los mercados) asociada con caminos en mal estado y transporte inadecuado tanto de forma directa como de maneras más complejas. El artículo se basa en una investigación de campo llevada a cabo en diversos contextos socioculturales y agroecológicos en África occidental y del sur (principalmente el sur de Ghana, el sur de Malawi y el norte y centro de Nigeria) para estudiar los impactos de la relativa inmovilidad y el mal acceso a los servicios sobre las mujeres y niñas. Son examinados con cierto detalle tres temas (interconectados): el acceso a los mercados, el acceso a la educación y el acceso a los servicios de salud. Se consideran también las posibles intervenciones para iniciar un cambio positivo.

Keywords:

• gender
• mobility
• markets
• education
• health
• promiscuity
• transport

Keywords:

• género
• movilidad
• mercados
• educación
• salud
• promiscuidad
• transporte

Acknowledgements

This article draws on research from various projects I have led, mostly funded by the UK Department for International Development, including CPHP R7575, R7149, R7924, and from pilot work in an ongoing ESRC/DFID project RES-167-25-0028. I am most grateful to the very many people who have participated and collaborated in these studies and to the helpful comments from three anonymous reviewers. A version of this article was first presented at an international workshop on ‘Understanding and Addressing Spatial Poverty Traps’ held near Cape Town on 29 March 2007. The event was jointly hosted by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) and funded by ODI, CPRC, Trócaire and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Notes

1. ‘Off-road’ connotes villages located away from a paved or good gravel road.

2. This ESRC/DFID-funded study is led by the author. See http://www.dur.ac.uk/child.mobility/ for collaborators and other details.

3. Female market leaders in the Asante and Asante-influenced regions of Ghana are referred to as queens (see Clark 1994, 252).

4. However, many of the village women interviewed also felt they could be cheated by traders in larger, distant markets (particularly through manipulation of measures). Strong ‘customer’ relations in the closest market offer not only a more assured market for goods, but also potential benefits in terms of credit.

5. Bryceson (1999, 35) argues that the family downsizing reported in many regions of Africa is being addressed by ‘a counter tendency on the part of women to seek wider spheres of economic and social support’.

6. Such chores commonly seem to be especially heavy among fostered girls in both Ghana and Malawi.

7. The Ghana Ministry of Health, she observed, had a standard scheme with national and regional trainers, including ‘peti-peti maintenance’ (how to remove a plug, clean it and tighten the bolts).

8. Mandel's (2004) research in urban Benin is a rare exception.