Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa

Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa

Author: Mary Njeri Kinyanjui

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2014-06-12

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1780326335

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In this highly original work, Mary Njeri Kinyanjui explores the trajectory of women's movement from the margins of urbanization into the centres of business activities in Nairobi and its accompanying implications for urban planning. While women in much of Africa have struggled to gain urban citizenship and continue to be weighed down by poor education, low income and confinement to domestic responsibilities due to patriarchic norms, a new form of urban dynamism - partly informed by the informal economy - is now enabling them to manage poverty, create jobs and link to the circuits of capital and labour. Relying on social ties, reciprocity, sharing and collaboration, women's informal 'solidarity entrepreneurialism' is taking them away from the margins of business activity and catapulting them into the centre. Bringing together key issues of gender, economic informality and urban planning in Africa, Kinyanjui demonstrates that women have become a critical factor in the making of a postcolonial city.


Technology and Rural Women

Technology and Rural Women

Author: Iftikhar Ahmed

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1000648761

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First published in 1985, Technology and Rural Women synthesizes the fragmented empirical evidence and the wide range of theoretical approaches on the effects of modernisation on women in the developing world. Using a multi-disciplinary methodology, empirical and sectoral overviews, and country case studies, it draws together the literature to clarify the issues and the policies. The book begins with a conceptual overview and analyses the applicability of traditional theories of technological change and impact on gender based distributional questions. It proceeds to compare the African and Asian experience, examines the African situation regionally, and then as a set of four country case studies. The authors find that the imperfections of rural factor markets have contributed to women’s concentration in labour intensive sectors, marked by low productivity and low returns. Biases in the agrarian structure and the extension services are largely responsible for the Institutionalisation of discrimination against women. Finally, the volume identifies the social, economic, and technical constraints to the diffusion of technologies relevant to rural women’s tasks. In the final chapter the book’s analysis is further refined and extended, so that its conclusions to both theory and policy making are clearly brought out, and areas of future research identified. This book is an essential read for students and scholars of labour economics, women’s studies and economics in general.


Women's Economic Empowerment

Women's Economic Empowerment

Author: Kate Grantham

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-03-04

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1000340341

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This book investigates the barriers to women’s economic empowerment in the Global South. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of countries, the book outlines important lessons and practical solutions for promoting gender equality. Despite global progress in closing gender gaps in education and health, women’s economic empowerment has lagged behind, with little evidence that economic growth promotes gender equality. International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme was set up to provide policy lessons, insights, and concrete solutions that could lead to advances in gender equality, particularly on the role of institutions and macroeconomic growth, barriers to labour market access for women, and the impact of women’s care responsibilities. This book showcases rigorous and multi-disciplinary research emerging from this ground-breaking programme, covering topics such as the school-to-work transition, child marriage, unpaid domestic work and childcare, labour market segregation, and the power of social and cultural norms that prevent women from fully participating in better paid sectors of the economy. With a range of rich case studies from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, this book is perfect for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in the Global South.


Mwea

Mwea

Author: Jon R. Moris

Publisher:

Published: 1973

Total Pages: 550

ISBN-13:

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Monograph comprising a project evaluation of an agricultural project for rice irrigation human settlement in Mwea, Kenya - discusses agricultural management, tenant farmer and management attitudes, technical aspects, impact on agricultural production, agricultural income, agricultural marketing, rural development, rural women and life styles, comments on legislation, provides comparisons with Perkerra scheme, and includes agricultural policy suggestions. Bibliography pp. 506 to 524, diagrams, maps, photographs, references and statistical tables.