Gender roles sa Africa

at Kanlurang Asya
History ng Africa sa Gender roles
Gender roles are the activities, responsibilities, and rights that
a society considers normal and appropriate for men and
women. There is no single model of gender roles in Africa.
The continent’s diverse cultures have many different ideas
about male and female roles, although in general women
have been subordinate to men in both public and family life.
For several generations, however, African attitudes toward
both gender roles and sexuality have been changing,
especially in the cities and in areas where Western influence
has been strongest.
 Learning how people of each gender are
expected to behave is a key part of growing
up in any society. In Africa, as elsewhere,
men and women have traditionally had
different roles in the family and community
and in the work they do
History
The earliest economies in Africa were based on HUNTING AND
GATHERING wild foods. A few societies, such as the !Kung in
the KALAHARI DESERT and the Mbuti in the rain forest of
CONGO (KINSHASA), survived almost completely unchanged
into modern times. Early theories about biological and social
development in humans stressed the importance of meat eating
and of men’s roles as hunters. Today, however, researchers
know that women were the primary economic producers in many
early societies.
 !Kung

Mbuti
 Between 60 and 80 percent of the calories
consumed by people in the existing
hunting-and-gathering societies come from
the fruits, roots, grains, nuts, honey, and other
foods gathered by women.
 This pattern did not change after
agriculture took hold across most of
Africa. Women today perform between
60 and 80 percent of the continent’s
agricultural labor.
Their roles in farming differ from men’s, a fact that is illustrated
by the way particular tools are associated with gender.

Men
The ax is considered a man’s
tool because men clear and
prepare the land.
They also plow the fields.
Women
The hoe is reserved for women, who
plant, harvest, process, and store the
crops.
Women are also responsible for
most tasks involved in producing food for
families, including obtaining water and
firewood, often across long distances.
Since around 1900, the division of labor is still based on gender in many
cases. In some cultures, such as the Nandi people of KENYA, men and
women cultivate the same crops, but for different purposes.

The men raise crops for The women focus on

cash subsistence crops, grown
for family use
men and women cultivate different crops. In NIGERIA,
IGBO

Men raise yams While the women grow

cassava.
The shift to an economy based on cash during the
colonial period generally benefited African men more
than women.

In most cases colonial officials Women continued to be important

recognized male rather than producers, but often the goods
female authority, and they they produced were sold by their
conducted their business with fathers, husbands, or brothers.
men.
They belief that men are entitled to the
income from women’s work has not
entirely died out in modern Africa.
 In African cities women generally make a living
as traders or domestic servants rather than as
salaried employees.
Some work as prostitutes.

In western Africa women dominate trading in local markets.

Among the HAUSA of northern Nigeria, married women are required by religious law to stay
inside their homes. Some manage to run trading businesses, though, by using their children
to carry messages and goods.

In eastern Africa women often divide their time between trading and farming. Many women in
eastern African cities produce and sell beer.
 Gender Roles and Islam

In the largely Muslim countries of Africa, attitudes

toward gender roles and sexuality have been
shaped by Islam and Arab cultural traditions.
In traditional Arab societies, men and women have
different privileges and women are subordinate to
men.

Many Muslim nations still allow men to take multiple wives,

though the practice is becoming less common. In religious
life women may be barred from entering the mosque or
restricted to a special section. In rural areas chores are
divided by gender, with men taking care of large livestock
such as camels and women tending small animals.
 In recent years urbanization,
education, and contact with other
cultures have brought new freedom
and opportunity for Muslim women in
Africa.
At the same time, the subordination of
women to men in families remains
because the home is one of the few
areas where a man can still exert his
authority.
Nevertheless, the roles of Muslim men
and women are constantly changing.
During the second half of the 1900s,
in nations such as EGYPT,
MOROCCO, ALGERIA, and SUDAN,
women became more active in
politics, even fighting in revolutions
and forming political parties.
Talahanayan 3.1Taon ng Pagbibigay Karapatang
Bumoto sa Kababaihan
Kanlurang Asya Africa

Lebanon (1952) Egypt (1956)

Syria (1949) (1953) Tunisia (1959)

Yemen (1967) Mauritania (1961)

Iraq (1980) Algeria (1962)

Oman (1994) Morocco (1963)

Kuwait (1985)(2005) Libya (1964)

Sudan (1964)
Sexuality and Sexual Behavior
 Like gender roles, sexual behavior and
attitudes about sex are shaped by a society’s
culture and are learned by each new
generation. In African societies sexual norms
can vary according to class, age, religion, or
ethnic background. Researchers have
uncovered two very different attitudes in
Africa toward sexuality in general.
1 In many African societies, people enter casually into
sexual relationships and view sex mainly in terms of
reproduction.

Many non-Muslim groups traditionally expressed little concern

about casual sex, and some cultures have regarded prostitution
as a business transaction. For example, in NAIROBI, Kenya,
during the colonial period, women who became prostitutes could
often acquire greater economic security than they might have
gained through marriage.
 Other African societies, however, regard sex as something
2
powerful and dangerous that can destroy the social order if
certain taboos are broken.

Rules regarding sex might require that a particular ritual be

followed or might forbid relations between certain partners. Many
eastern African societies consider it taboo to discuss sex
publicly, and forbid even married partners to refer directly to the
sex act. The Ganda people of UGANDA have sex only in the
dark, because seeing one’s partner naked is taboo.
 In some cultures, such as the Kgatla
of BOTSWANA and the !Kung, both
men and women enjoy sex and speak
openly about it. But in many societies,
women are not expected to enjoy sex.
In Sudan a woman who shows direct
interest in sex faces severe penalties.
Some researchers believe that one of
the main reasons for the custom of
female circumcision, surgery on the
sexual organs of girls and young
women, is to control women’s
sexuality by making intercourse
painful and difficult. The practice
occurs in varying degrees of severity
in more than 20 African nations.
 Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female
genital cutting and female circumcision,[a] is the ritual cutting
or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia.
The practice is found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and
within communities from countries in which FGM is common.
UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women living
today in 30 countries—27 African countries, Indonesia, Iraqi
Kurdistan and Yemen—have undergone the procedures.[
 Typically carried out by a traditional
circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted
from days after birth to puberty and beyond.
In half the countries for which national figures
are available, most girls are cut before the
age of five.
 Procedures differ according to the country or ethnic group.
They include removal of the clitoral hood and clitoral glans;
removal of the inner labia; and removal of the inner and outer
labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, known
as infibulation, a small hole is left for the passage of urine
and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and
opened further for childbirth.
FGM practitioners see the procedures
as marking not only ethnic boundaries
but also gender difference. According
to this view, male circumcision
defeminizes men while FGM
demasculinizes women.