Comments and Reviews

I have been working on public works programs for the past twelve years. In those initiatives, it was found that when you followed up on what use the wage was put t: the men talked of having invested in a bicycle or a small hawker selling stuff; whereas the women could recount that with the first two months' wages all they did was bought food items, salt, soap, and medicines. Subsequent months, adding to the list they began to look into other needs (higher level needs so to speak) - like they bought a goat, they paid for school fees, they paid rent for their child to stay close to the school; the most recent addition to my list is this: they bought a mobile phone so they could know the price of produce at the market on a particular day! Finally they are thinking business, having met the basic needs of the household. In earlier days the ratio of jobs reserved for women was a minimum of 30%, Women were shy, they never came out to work where there were a lot of men in some communities, elsewhere, the husbands did not allow their wives to go work (if the husband was not there on the job) where men are. With intensive investment in information+education+communication, didvidents are seen that these cultural/traditional barriers are being dealt with. women now have a minimum ratio of 50% for the jobs. During a session with communities on Conditional cash transfers, answering the question - who shold get the money, the man or the woman, the village council and most of the village assmbly replied in unison, that the woman should because they will make good use of the money in providing for the basic needs of the family and meet the conditionalities. Mine was to just agree with the stament, although much is not know on what those women on the empowerment ladder face - do the men just always accept or they become abusive? household in relation to control over the

Posted by Ida Manjolo on April 06, 2009 at 12:08 AM BRT #