Women's Trade Research Articles

Women entrepreneurs in rural Nigeria: formal versus informal credit schemes

PurposeThis study examines why low-wealth women entrepreneurs forgo mobile enabled money services and government supported micro finance for informal, community-based revolving loans in rural Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThematic analysis of 25 interviews with women in rural, south-west Nigeria. Entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, in the gendered context of micro finance and community-based lending, is employed.FindingsThis study explains the paradox of forgoing seemingly accessible mobile enabled credit, and formal credit schemes (e.g. micro-finance programs) for informal, one-on-one borrowing. Convenience and trust-based relationships with respected community members ease the burden of time scarcity and vulnerability associated with formal capital. Flexible terms, autonomy, self-reliance and knowing who one is dealing with make Esusu a preferred source of finance. Findings are discussed in the context of gendered entrepreneurial ecosystems in which participants conduct business.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is not representative of women entrepreneurs in rural Nigeria. Survivorship bias is acknowledged. Further research is needed on the psychological risks of informal capital and the benefits of community-based lending.Practical implicationsMeasures to scale mobile enabled credit, without commensurate interventions to address time management and other structural issues that confront women traders, limit their utility and impacts. Power differentials between women traders and lenders must also be considered in the design of lending products. Training of women traders and formal lenders should incorporate curricula about gender gaps in capital markets and systematic gender challenges to support entrepreneurs who seek to grow beyond subsistence enterprises.Originality/valueThis study documents decision criteria that motivate informal rural women traders to employ community-based revolving credit or Esusu. Findings inform measures to increase women entrepreneurs' access to capital in a rural sub-Saharan Africa contexts.

Adapting to climate change-induced flooding: insights from women traders in the riverine areas of Nigeria—a qualitative study

IntroductionIn the riverine areas of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, the intersection of climate change and flooding poses an escalating threat to the livelihoods and well-being of women traders. This qualitative study investigates the experiences and adaptive strategies employed by women traders in response to climate change-induced flooding.MethodsEmploying an exploratory research design with purposive sampling, 46 women traders participated in the study, involving 23 in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions. Thematic analysis was applied to scrutinize the collected data.ResultsThe study unravels the impacts of climate change-induced flooding on economic, social, and gender dynamics, revealing economic disparities, gender inequality, livelihood disruptions, inadequate infrastructure, and limited access to information among women traders. Vulnerabilities emanated from disruptions in supply chains, damage to goods, and constrained market access, with agricultural traders being notably affected. Flood events exacerbated gender inequalities, amplifying caregiving responsibilities and limiting decision-making power for women traders. Resilience surfaced through diversified income sources, community solidarity, collective narratives, and local adaptive strategies, including indigenous knowledge and innovations.DiscussionPolicymakers and stakeholders should prioritize resilient infrastructure investments, such as flood-resistant marketplaces and storage facilities, to safeguard women traders’ businesses during flooding events and enhance the overall economic resilience of the community.

Giddens, Sen and IsiXhosa-Speaking Women Traders: Theoretical Grafting to Enhance Analysis

ABSTRACT Grafting selected elements into a primary theory from another theoretical approach can sometimes enhance the theoretical framework to facilitate more refined data analysis. Because of the possible risks of theoretical fragmentation that may result from incorporating elements of different theories into a single framework, we opted for grafting selected elements of one theory into our primary theory, to carefully retain the logical coherence of the main theory. In this paper, we draw on a study of isiXhosa-speaking women traders in Cape Town’s Langa Township (hereafter referred as Langa) to argue that grafting elements of Sen’s capability approach (CA) into Giddens’s structuration theory (ST) enhanced our theoretical framework. This improved the quality of our analysis and enabled us to generate more nuanced findings. Our qualitative study with 25 African women traders investigated how these women exercised agency in responding to structural constraints and opportunities that affected their trading businesses. We used participant observation and in-depth interviews to collect data. Sen’s CA (grounded in social justice) expanded on Giddens’s notion of structures as constraining and enabling. For this aspect of our theoretical framework, CA informed by Sen’s research on women’s empowerment projects amplified the intersection of gender, class and race constraints that affected the women traders. Furthermore, CA’s emphasis on quality of life and well-being outcomes was useful in helping us assess the transformative capacity of the women traders’ agency. This dimension complemented Giddens’s ST and therefore our theoretical framework was enhanced by grafting in these elements from Sen’s CA.

The Contribution of Women Traders in Increasing Household Economic Income in Saumlaki South Tanimbar Sub-District

This research aims to explore the contribution of women traders in increasing household economic income in Saumlaki, South Tanimbar Sub-district. Saumlaki, as part of the Tanimbar Islands, faces complex economic challenges, especially among households. Women traders in this region have an important role in creating economic opportunities and overcoming economic difficulties in their neighborhoods. This research aims to understand the extent to which women traders contribute to increasing household economic income. This involves analyzing their role in creating employment, increasing access to economic resources, and influencing the economic development of the community. This research used a qualitative approach with in-depth interviews and observation as data collection methods. Data was analyzed through a process of coding and emerging themes to understand the impact of women traders on the household economy. The results showed that women traders have a significant role in increasing household economic income in Saumlaki. They are able to create economic opportunities, expand networks, and make a meaningful contribution to the economic development of the community. This research confirms that women traders have an important role in increasing household economic income in Saumlaki, South Tanimbar Sub-district. In this context, supporting efforts that strengthen their role in local economic development could be a relevant and strategic step in fighting poverty and improving household welfare in this region.

Inside the dark world: Women's trade and prostitution in Patricia McCormick's Sold and Awais Khan's No Honour

Trafficking, sexual exploitation, and violence are substantial issues for women living in the patriarchal societies of the Global South. McCormick foregrounds these issues in India and Nepal in her Sold (2006), as Khan does in Pakistan in his No Honour (2021). This article argues that South Asian patriarchal societies, including Nepal and Pakistan, are sexually saturated, rooted in gender inequality, and treat the female gender as the lesser and oppressed, a commodity and an object to be traded and sold for domiciliary purposes. Masculine privileges are threaded through South Asian patriarchal cultures in the form of male-designed doctrines. Contesting the patriarchal notion that prostituted women are objects, this article establishes them as subjects since both protagonists of the selected novels challenge patriarchal norms to become autonomous. Kathleen Barry's concepts on the close ties between trafficking and prostitution are used to capture the engagements of the two selected novels with the designated problems of women's trade and prostitution through textual analysis. This article concludes that sexism, masculinized privileges, and gendered misogyny are insidious forces at work that perpetuate the bleak social realities of women's trade and prostitution in patriarchal societies and can be overcome through women's empowerment.

Feminism Perspective in Economic Welfare of Women Traders at Sukawati Art Market, Gianyar

This study aims to determine the perspective of feminism in the economic welfare of women traders in the Sukawati Art Market, Gianyar. Economic welfare as seen from the use of income to meet needs. This type of research is a qualitative phenomenological approach to understand the essence of the experience of informants related to the phenomena experienced by women traders. As many as 8 informants explained things related to the economic welfare achieved by these women. The findings show that women traders have various reasons for running a business and maintaining a business that supports various needs. Women traders are also able to manage their income as traders in meeting health, education, consumption patterns, housing and social needs.

Aspects of Legal Protection by the State Against Victims of Child and Women Trade

Human Trafficking is a very complex problem and until now there is no proper solution to overcome it. This issue is very important because the majority of victims are underage girls who do not get their rights as a child. The purpose of trafficking in persons is for sexual exploitation, forced labor or other forms of exploitation. There is nothing honorable or fair about enslaving humans or trading them as objects of trade. The majority of the ways they get entangled are with the mode of debt bondage and fraud perpetrated by brokers. Not all girls experience the mechanism of trafficking in the same way. Of all the mechanisms that occur, at the stage of acceptance, sexual violence is experienced by many victims because girls under the age of 18 mostly work as female sex workers. International efforts to combat human trafficking include efforts to prevent human trafficking, rescue victims, and punish perpetrator. It is important to realize that people involved in human trafficking come not only from developing countries but also from developed countries and victims can come from all walks of life and gender. It is important to understand our role as individuals in preventing human trafficking by watching for any signs of suspicion and reporting suspicious activity to the regulatory authorities. We can also support the efforts of organizations and institutions fighting to combat trafficking in persons and assist those affected.

A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight for Justice

A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight for Justice

Deploying design science research in sparse resource settings: Some lessons from design projects in Tanzania

Design science research (DSR) has become a well-accepted research paradigm in information system research. DSR aims at solving people’s obstacles by creating solutions and thus bringing about human development. In this paper, we present lessons learned from design projects conducted in Tanzania since 2015. These projects focused on solving Tanzanian challenges in a number of sectors: street vending businesses, women traders, small-scale farmers, micro traders, and education. We reviewed six projects carried out in Tanzania using documentary review and open-ended questionnaires. The findings revealed how researchers reinforce the DSR framework, and the motives, challenges, and lessons learned from the application of DSR in sparse resource settings to inform future designs. The findings of the current study will help existing and future IT designers, policymakers, curriculum developers, researchers, and other information and communications technologies for development stakeholders to come up with appropriate solutions for inclusive development.

Business, Technology and the New Normal: ICT Adoption and Use among Women Traders

The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic has compelled individuals and businesses to restructure and adapt the formerly ‘established’ ways of doing things to capitalize on the opportunities presented by ICTs. This circumstance has resulted in what is known as the “New Normal”. This entails a longer-term perspective in terms of business decisions to optimize the usage of the internet to continue to stay in business. To evaluate women’s knowledge, and ICT use during the pandemic in Yilo Krobo Municipality, the survey approach was used. A total number of 20,160 women are employed constituting 5.4% in the public sector, private formal 3.5%, private informal 90.8%, semi-public/parastatal 0.1% while NGO represents 0.2%. A statistical table was used to determine the sample frame and size resulting in a sample size of 322 from a population of 20,160 women employed with a confidence level of 95%. Three hundred and fifty (350) questionnaires were distributed and only 193 were completed, returned and used for analysis. With regards to ICT devices or services, the findings revealed that about 95% of the respondents had access to mobile phones and 70% of these respondents were connected to the internet through their mobile phone hotspot. The study discovered a low level of adequacy of knowledge of ICT use across variables such as age groups, educational attainment, and marital status.

Gender and Precarity across Time: Where Are the Writing Working Women?

The end of the nineteenth century in Britain saw a range of “newnesses”; New Unionism signified a boom in trade unionism, while the New Woman figure symbolized women's struggle for independence. However, both as literary figures and as real-life writers, such New Women were largely middle class and educated. Where are the working women within the sphere of literary and cultural production, and how are they represented within the New Unionism? Against a dominant trade unionism that argued for a “family wage” and considered women's organizing as a threat, the Women's Trade Union League (1874), the National Federation of Women Workers (1906), the 1888 Match Girls strike, and writers and labor activists such as Annie Besant and Clementina Black noted women's roles within labor. Attempting to locate a working New Woman in the trade union movement, this paper is a reflective work-in-progress, an exploration rather than a finished argument. Written by a precariously employed woman trade unionist in the twenty-first century, struggling to find time to write, examining the works of precariously employed women workers one hundred years earlier, the essay poses questions about what happens to politically engaged scholarship in a time of increasingly precarious working conditions and knowledges.

Challenges Facing Informal Cross-Border Women Traders and Potential Management Opportunities in Busia and Isebania Borders-Kenya

Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is an integral part and unrecognized component of Africa’s economy which has persisted despite the effort to graft it into a formal economy globally. An important observation is that women are the dominant players in all ICBT activities, accounting for more than 60%. This study endeavors to examine the challenges facing informal cross-border women traders(ICBWTs) and the potential management opportunities in Busia and Isebania Borders Kenya. They adopted a mixed research method and a cross-sectional design. Data was collected through interview schedules, questionnaires, and observation which were analyzed quantitatively through descriptive statistics while qualitative data were analyzed and presented thematically. The study found that the challenges were; inadequate capital, harassment by border officials, corruption, insecurity, high transportation cost, sexual and gender-based violence, self-seeking states, and confiscation of goods. This study recommends that states within the EAC should strive toward embracing women-friendly formalization approaches to reduce informal cross-border trader activities which have risks to women.

A Microhistory of Cross-Class Feminism in New York City, 1907–1911: The Activism of Carola Woerishoffer

This microhistory is a study of one woman's efforts in New York City between 1907 and 1911 to join the efforts of three local feminist organizations—Greenwich House, the National Consumers League, and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL)—that were combining the energies of women from the industrial working class, middle class, and upper class in sustained drives to improve the working conditions and wages of women factory and steam laundry workers. One woman who devoted herself to these three organizational cross-class initiatives was Carola Woerishoffer (1885–1911). Microhistory is a method of studying the past that makes use of remnants of evidence still available about people, organizations, or communities that have been partially or completely forgotten.

Ethnomycological study of macromycetes used in the Funa district, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

The present study is a contribution to the knowledge of fungal species of food interest exploited by the population of Funa district, in Kinshasa city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The aim was to assess the knowledge of Funa district community in mushroom species diversity sold in the market. The mycological surveys were conducted between December 2019 and January 2020. In the study, we used survey-participation technique. A survey-participation was used as a technique, which is a non-probabilistic method where the interviewees were randomly selected. The sample size was of 81 participants. Qualitative and quantitative methods supported by ethnomycological surveys were used to collect data. Out of 81 people interviewed, 97.5% were women; food use was predominant with 93.8%; 80.2% of participants reported that mushrooms were difficult to preserve due to their perishable nature; and 96.2% of participants felt that mushrooms were only available during the dry season. The sale of sporophores in FUNA District remains the only method of supplying households and local markets. Nevertheless, mushrooms are a valued commodity in women's trading activities in Funa District. More studies are needed to have a clear view on different species consumed by the Kinshasa people and create a database of edible mushrooms consumed in DRC. Furthermore, it is required to assess the knowledge of different Congolese tribes to increase the knowledge of ethnomycology and assess their in vitro medicinal activities against different pathologies.

PEREMPUAN-PEREMPUAN DI PASAR ANGSO DUO 1974-2018

Angso Duo Market is one of the largest Traditional Markets in Jambi City, the buildings in this market have been revitalized or renovated. Merchants at the Angso Duo Market distribute goods to earn income, the income received by traders every day is uncertain. This study aims to, one how the existence of women in the Angso Duo market and, two how female traders carry out their activities as traders and as housewives. exercise his or her own judgment in selecting traders to participate in this study. This research was conducted at the Angso Duo Baru Market, Jambi City in August 2021 to October 2021. The results of this study indicate that simultaneously knowing the development of the number of traders from year to year, the comparison between female and male traders, education level, types of merchandise , the role of women traders, the contribution of women traders to family income, the role of women traders in socio-economic life, the allocation of women's working time.

The Road Not Taken: Pearl McGill and the Promise of Inclusive Unionism, 1894–1914

Abstract Pearl McGill's path from an officer in a union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) offers an alternative lens through which to view industrial unionism at the critical juncture of the legendary “Bread and Roses” strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Her role in the strikes of button workers in Iowa and textile workers in New England between 1911 and 1913 shines a light on the ways in which grassroots activists invested hope that AFL “federal labor unions” (local unions directly affiliated with the national AFL) might serve as a vehicle for their inclusive union aspirations. Her contribution enhances our understanding of the strategies of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and the contested terrain of ethnicity and gender on which its leaders sought to organize women factory workers, constrained as they were by their loyalty to the AFL.

Editor's Introduction

Editor's Introduction

An Interethnic Paradox: Chicago's Irish and Everyone Else

An Interethnic Paradox: Chicago's Irish and Everyone Else

An investigation into the livelihoods strategies of informal women traders in Zimbabwe

This article investigated varieties of livelihoods strategies employed by some informal women traders doing business at flea markets in the Harare Business Districts of the Harare Province. The study was informed by the Sustainable Livelihood Approach proffered by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency Division (SIDA 2001) for Policy and Socio-Economic Analysis. A quantitative and qualitative research design was developed and data was gathered through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and direct observations during transect walks. The objectives of the study were to; identify micro-credit schemes used by the informal women traders doing business at flea markets, explore the livelihoods of microcredit schemes as pathways to poverty eradication and finally determine interventions and sustainable strategies that could be used for the informal women traders. The study discovered that women informal traders engaged in diverse activities for sustainable livelihoods strategies that eradicate poverty. The bulk of informal women traders face staid livelihoods challenges, resulting in them living in poverty. The study thus calls on Government and financing institutions to finance them for local empowerment, gain access and control of available livelihoods resources in a meaningful way. A range of policy interventions and sustainable strategies could be developed that enable informal women traders to eradicate poverty in Zimbabwe,

Margaret Sanger, “The Unrecorded Battle” (1912)

Margaret Sanger, “The Unrecorded Battle” (1912)