Gender Relations In Households Research Articles

Economy of production: A theory of household labor organization and material reuse

AbstractHousehold economic studies of preindustrial societies have overlooked one very specific and common material aspect: thrift. This article introduces a theory of economic production for household analysis that focuses on the economic use of materials, space, and labor. This framework is especially integral to understanding emergence of hierarchies. In emerging hierarchies, craft production at the household level can play a key part in the accumulation of power because the scale and type of craft production are moderated by the availability and abundance of material, space, and labor. Control of craft production can mean control of material, space, and labor, and thrifty control can increase production; this is key to emerging economies, particularly those located in a frontier area. Because women are often most associated with household labor, examining cultural definitions of thrift and waste provides a more complete understanding of household gender relations and reframes the importance of women's labor. Using an example from a 14th‐century Mississippian frontier site in Virginia, I show that women engaged in craft production and that by using materials, space, and labor economically, they increased their power over time. An economy of production theoretical perspective highlights a significant factor, thrift, in household organization and agency.

Gender dynamics around introduction of improved forages in Kenya and Ethiopia

AbstractImproved forages of genus Brachiaria and Panicum grasses were introduced to men and women farmers in western Kenya and southern Ethiopia. To provide an understanding of the social and demographic characteristics of farming systems, a household survey was implemented in 2018/2019. In 2020, a complementary qualitative study was conducted to understand: (a) gender dynamics in accessing forage planting materials: (b) role of forage trait preferences, and (c) how the introduction of forage varieties influences gender relations in households. Forage seed/splits were accessed through women's groups. In Kenya, men and women were advised to source more forage seeds from private seed companies for scaling. In Ethiopia, men prioritized “fast regrowth” and women “nutritious biomass” traits; in Kenya, men prioritized “nutritious biomass” and women “how fast forage splits could be established” traits. The sale of the forage cuttings appeared to provide promising marketing opportunities for women, who were able to control the income generated. The introduction of improved forages, which are grown close to homesteads, reduced the time men and boys spent grazing livestock while increasing the time women and girls spent harvesting fodder. Following gender sensitivity training provided alongside forage introductions, Ethiopian men reported being involved in forage harvesting, chopping, and feeding against prevailing norms while the Kenyan women took on greater decision‐making roles. These positive outcomes in gender equity suggest that the integration of gender and forage technology trainings can secure significant gains not only for women, but also for the men in the households.

Precarity and Vulnerability: Rubber Plantations in Northern Laos and Northern Shan State, Myanmar

ABSTRACTIn northern Laos and Northern Shan State in Myanmar, there has occurred a rapid expansion of rubber plantations, both by large economic concessions and by smallholder farmers. The impact of the introduction of rubber differs by place. This article analyses the impact of the introduction of rubber in two villages in Northern Shan State and two in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR. We differentiate vulnerability and precarity while assessing the changes that women and men have experienced, which allows us to problematise the long-term vulnerability of seemingly well-adapted farming households. We argue that the strategies that farmers have chosen to improve their situation today will lead to unsustainable livelihoods in the long term. We also link the analysis of vulnerability and precarity to changes in household gender relations. Notwithstanding increased precarity, rising household cash incomes and external support have improved women’s position in some places while hardly affecting gender relations in others.

"If it's issues to do with nutrition…I can decide…": gendered decision-making in joining community-based child nutrition interventions within rural coastal Kenya.

Gender roles and relations play an important role in child health and nutritional status. While there is increasing recognition of the need to incorporate gender analysis in health planning and programme development, there has been relatively little attention paid to the gendered nature of child nutrition interventions. This qualitative study undertaken in rural Coastal Kenya aimed to explore the interaction between household gender relations and a community-based child nutrition programme, with a focus on household decision-making dynamics related to joining the intervention. Fifteen households whose children were enrolled in the programme were followed up over a period of 12 months. Over a total of 60 household visits, group and individual in-depth interviews were conducted with a range of respondents, supplemented by non-participant observations. Data were analysed using a framework analysis approach. Engagement with the intervention was highly gendered with women being the primary decision-makers and engagers. Women were responsible for managing child feeding and minor child illnesses in households. As such, involvement in community-based nutrition interventions and particularly one that targeted a condition perceived as non-serious, fell within women’s domain. Despite this, the nutrition programme of interest could be categorized as gender-blind. Gender was not explicitly considered in the design and implementation of the intervention, and the gender roles and norms in the community with regards to child nutrition were not critically examined or challenged. In fact, the intervention might have inadvertently reinforced existing gender divisions and practices in relation to child nutrition, by (unintentionally) excluding men from the nutrition discussions and activities, and thereby supporting the notion of child feeding and nutrition as “women’s business”. To improve outcomes, community-based nutrition interventions need to understand and take into account gendered household dynamics, and incorporate strategies that promote behaviour change and attitude shifts in relation to gendered norms and child nutrition.

The Effect of Gender Policies on Fertility: The Moderating Role of Education and Normative Context.

In this paper, we aim to assess the extent to which individual-level completed fertility varies across contexts characterized by policies supporting different gender division of labor models. We examine key labor market and care policies that shape gender relations in households and in the public domain. We also consider the role of gender norms, which can act as both a moderator and a confounding factor for policy effects. We hypothesize that, by facilitating role compatibility and reducing the gendered costs of childrearing, policies that support gender equality lead to an increase in fertility levels and to a reduction in fertility differentials by the level of education. Using individual-level data from the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions for 16 countries, combined with country-level data, we analyze completed fertility through multilevel Poisson’s models. We find that the national level of childcare coverage is positively associated with fertility. Family allowances, prevalence of women’s part-time employment and length of paid leaves were also found to be positively associated with completed fertility, though the associations were not statistically significant. These variables show a significant positive pattern according to education. A high number of average working hours for men are negatively associated with completed fertility and show a strong negative pattern by educational level. The prevalence of gender-egalitarian norms is highly predictive of fertility levels, yet we found no consistent evidence of a weaker association of gender-equality policies in countries where egalitarian values are less prevalent.

Restructuring women’s work; labour market and household gender regimes in the Greater Latrobe Valley, Australia

This article examines the impact of economic restructuring on gender relations. It examines the implications of labour market change for households within a region, in this case the Greater Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. The argument is that the unchanging gender structures of the labour market constrain the intentions and efforts of individuals within households to significantly alter household gender relations. The analysis considers how restructuring has reshaped the regional labour market since 1996, changing opportunities for both men’s and women’s employment. Despite these changes, the regional labour market continues to be underpinned by a ‘male breadwinner’ gender regime and significant occupational and industrial gender segregation. Drawing on four vignettes, the analysis shows that the impetus towards greater gender equality in the household is constrained by a stagnant and stable labour market gender regime.

Precarious Work Experiences of Racialized Immigrant Woman in Toronto: A Community- Based Study

Despite their high levels of education, racialized immigrant women in Canada are over-represented in low-paid, low-skill jobs characterized by high risk and precarity. Our project documents the experiences with precarious employment of racialized immigrant women in Toronto. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with racialized immigrant women. Participants were recruited through posted flyers, partner agencies, peer researcher networks and snowball sampling. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo software. The project followed a community-based participatory action research model. Participants faced powerful structural barriers to decent employment and additionally faced barriers associated with household gender relations. Their labour market experiences negatively impacted their physical and mental health as well as that of their families. These problems further constrained women’s ability to secure decent employment. Our study makes important contributions in filling the gap on the gendered barriers racialized immigrant women face in the labour market and the gendered impacts of deskilling and precarity on women and their families. We propose labour market reforms and changes in immigration and social policies to enable racialized immigrant women to overcome barriers to decent work.

“Tractorettes” or Partners? Farmers' Views on Women in Kansas Farming Households

AbstractIn the United States, for various reasons, fewer farm families rely solely on their farming operations for their livelihoods. As the structure of agriculture changes and farm families adjust their livelihood strategies, do the discourses around gender relations in households also change? This article analyzes the portrayal of women's roles in farming households by drawing on interviews with Kansas field crop farmers, primarily regarding their land‐use decisions, but also inquiring about their farms and communities. The article addresses the following question: How do farmers' discourses compare to Brandth's (2002a) categorizations of three dominant discourses in the literature on gender in European family farming—the discourse of the family farm, the discourse of masculinization, and the discourse of detraditionalization and diversity? While Brandth finds the discourse of the family farm prevalent in the literature, overall, the discourse apparent from 30 farmer interviews is more characteristic of detraditionalization and diversity. Although men are primarily the principal operators in farming, overall, women were not portrayed simply as helpers. Rather, their roles are depicted as diverse and important to farm operations.

The Impact of Rural-urban Migration on Gender Relations in Chinese Households

The large scale of migrant flows has affected China's development profoundly. Rural-urban migration, in particular, has been the main source of the China's economic miracle in recent years and is also rapidly reshaping the demographic and social landscapes of Chinese cities and countryside. How has migration impacted migrants themselves? This article attempts to examine the way in which migration challenges traditional attitudes to gender and patriarchy based on this empirical study of 89 rural-urban migrant households in Beijing. It concludes that the rural-urban movement has to some extent changed the pattern of the gender-based division of labor, the gendered decision-making process and perceived fairness and satisfaction regarding gender relations in these households. A comparison between three different types of migrant households reveals that the change in women's position in the labor force is the most important factor contributing to changes in domestic gender relations. However, due to the still gender-biased labor market regime and discriminatory policies towards migrants, the change has been limited. The findings have profound policy implications for improving the migrants' lives in cities.

Introduction: Marriage, Gender Relations and Social Change

This symposium of articles argue that marriage does not have a fixed relationship to gender inequality, nor does it simply reflect gender relations external to households, but is better seen as an institution which mediates social change and gender inequality. The collection of articles here show this symposium through empirical case studies of marriage, gender and wellbeing in contexts of social change. Together they problematise the connections between intra and extra household gender relations, analyse changing masculinities and marriage, consider how women's agency is deployed in reshaping marriage, and indicate a richer approach to understanding intrahousehold relations within particular contexts and temporal frames, and with fuller conceptions of breakdown positions and conjugal interdependencies.

An agriculture and health inter-sectorial research process to reduce hazardous pesticide health impacts among smallholder farmers in the Andes

BackgroundThe use of highly hazardous pesticides by smallholder farmers constitutes a classic trans-sectoral ‘wicked problem’. We share our program of research in potato and vegetable farming communities in the Andean highlands, working with partners from multiple sectors to confront this problem over several projects.MethodsWe engaged in iterative cycles of mixed methods research around particular questions, actions relevant to stakeholders, new proposal formulation and implementation followed by evaluation of impacts. Capacity building occurred among farmers, technical personnel, and students from multiple disciplines. Involvement of research users occurred throughout: women and men farmers, non-governmental development organizations, Ministries of Health and Agriculture, and, in Ecuador, the National Council on Social Participation.ResultsPesticide poisonings were more widespread than existing passive surveillance systems would suggest. More diversified, moderately developed agricultural systems had lower pesticide use and better child nutrition. Greater understanding among women of crop management options and more equal household gender relations were associated with reduced farm pesticide use and household pesticide exposure. Involvement in more organic agriculture was associated with greater household food security and food sovereignty. Markets for safer produce supported efforts by smallholder farmers to reduce hazardous pesticide use.Participatory interventions included: promoting greater access to alternative methods and inputs in a store co-sponsored by the municipality; producing less harmful inputs such as compost by women farmers; strengthening farmer organizations around healthier and more sustainable agriculture; marketing safer produce among social sectors; empowering farmers to act as social monitors; and using social monitoring results to inform decision makers. Uptake by policy makers has included: the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health rolling out pesticide poisoning surveillance modeled on our system; the Ecuadorian Association of Municipalities holding a national virtual forum on healthier agriculture; and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture promulgating restrictions on highly hazardous pesticides in June 2010.ConclusionWork with multiple actors is needed to shift agriculture towards greater sustainability and human health, particularly for vulnerable smallholders.

Local Power Relations and Household Gender Dynamics: Assessing Rwanda's Claim to Universal HIV/AIDS Treatment in Context

In this article, I argue that the political commitment of senior politicians to fight HIV/AIDS needs to be understood contextually by both analysts and practitioners. By this, I mean that progressive policy must be analysed with an appreciation of local power dynamics and household gender relations as well as within the broader socio-political climate in which HIV/AIDS services are delivered, something that donors and other international partners rarely do. Drawing on life history interviews conducted in 2006 with thirty-seven ordinary Rwandans, and using James Scott's concept of "state simplifications," I illuminate the politics behind who gets what kind of HIV/AIDS treatment in post-genocide Rwanda. Specifically, I focus on the politics of civil society membership and the nature of everyday interactions with local officials to illustrate the some of the ways in which the government's claims of universal access are a source of insecurity and vulnerability for HIV/AIDS affected individuals.

Able to come and go: reproducing gender in female rural–urban migration in the Red River Delta

AbstractBy examining household gender relations between migrant women and their left‐behind husbands, we aim to understand how gender shapes rural–urban migration and is being negotiated in the context of market‐driven rural transformations in the Red River Delta. In this study, rural women ensure the survival of their households as they link up with urban informal labour markets, moving to the city to work as junk collectors and buyers. Female migration destabilises conventional gender roles as left‐behind husbands take up social reproductive work that is partially relieved by wives' frequent home visits. Additionally, invoking women's traditional obligations, left‐behind husbands continue to ‘feel like men’, underscoring the resilience of conventional gendered norms on work, even where men actually take up women's work in their wives' absence. The article argues for a more nuanced understanding of this resilience premised on the principles of structured agency, suggesting that actors may actively reproduce gendered notions of work in order to cope with changing spatial arrangements of household livelihood strategies brought about by political economic pressures and opportunities in rural and urban Vietnam. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Food Security in Northern Malawi: Gender, Kinship Relations and Entitlements in Historical Context*

This article examines household food security in the Ekwendeni region of northern Malawi using the concept of entitlements, set within a broader world historical framework. The bargaining approach to household gender relations is critiqued through an examination of the data. Historical relations created a gendered experience of food security in northern Malawi. Qualitative research carried out in the Ekwendeni region indicates that women have fewer entitlements within the household, at least in part due to the modified patrilineal system of the Tumbuka-speaking people with Ngoni heritage in the region. They have a higher workload in terms of household reproduction as well as agricultural and market activities. Women are responsible for caring for sick relatives within and beyond the household, which affects household food security. Wives are less likely to receive support for kin in the form of seeds, cash, land or food, in comparison to husbands, who in turn do not always give these resources to the household. Women do not have much decision-making power over major production issues. There is evidence for high levels of spousal abuse, as well as excessive use of alcohol by husbands, which also affects household food security. Wives' unequal position is thus due to a lack of entitlements, such as land, access to employment, support from kin and the state. Some differences between this area of northern Malawi and other studies from central and southern Malawi are due to the different entitlements, particularly control over land and income, which speaks to the enduring implications of different lineage systems in the region. Food security is thus affected by women's unequal access to entitlements in northern Malawi, set within a world historical framework, which is essential for understanding the broader causes of food insecurity.

Retrenched Men Workers in Bangladesh: A Crisis of Masculinities?

This study explores changing masculine identities and gender relations in households, taking the case of men workers retrenched by a state-owned newsprint paper mill in Bangladesh. It analyzes their post-retrenchment condition characterized by considerable income loss and its wider ramifications by comparing men in stable income-earning occupations and in unstable income-earning occupations. This study argues that although men at different levels define their masculine identity differently in response to their personal crises, they are all determined to maintain that identity. Two types of masculinities are identified: public masculinity—socializing with other men and acting smart in teashops, and household masculinity—their status as family providers. In a situation with limited resources, men give up the former and uphold the latter. The men’s retrenchment does not always provide empowerment opportunities for their women partners through their participation in gainful paid work.

Gender and Community Context: An Analysis of Husbands? Household Authority in Rural Guatemala

Drawing on research about women’s autonomy, gender, and development, and Latin America, I analyze individual, household, and community-level factors associated with husbands’ sole authority with regard to four household issues: (1) money management; decision-making about (2) food purchases, (3) medicine purchases, and (4) health providers. The results point to how husbands’ authority varies across household issues and how the dynamics of authority differ with regard to money management and the other decision-making issues studied. This study found that husbands’ authority varied not only by individual characteristics but also by community features and thus adds to efforts to represent more fully how context matters to household gender relations.

Amongst Women: Exploring the Reality of Rural Childcare

In this paper we examine the provision and use of rural childcare, drawing on original data collected as part of a study of formal and informal childcare services in the County of Devon in England. The paper goes beyond existing discussions of childcare in rural areas in attempting to place patterns of use in the broader context of household gender relations and the cultural construction of rurality. We argue that decisions around child care by rural families need to be considered in relation not only to the availability of different sorts of service but also to the employment aspirations and choices of men and women and the assumptions of the primacy of women’s mothering role. Such issues are underpinned, we contest, by idyllic constructions of rural family life and social relations.

Women, the city and holidays

This paper reports some preliminary research on women and holidays carried out in the summer of 1994 in Lancaster, a city in the north west of England. The research, which involved interviewing an opportunity sample of 54 women visitors and residents on the streets of Lancaster, attempted to explore holidays as an aspect of engendered leisure. The analysis makes use of theories about space, place and time as well as ideas about the tourist gaze and deindustrialized and restructured cities. It is suggested that the issue of women and holidays raises important questions about gender relations in households, but it is also argued that theories about tourism and places which ignore gender cannot offer a satisfactory account of how women consume places and regard time and space. In conclusion, the paper sketches ideas about how future research on women and holidays might be conducted.