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gender roles

Women and the informal economy in urban Africa : from the margins to the centre

Upphovsperson: Kinyanjui, Mary Njeri
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | London ; Uppsala : Zed Books ; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2014
Ämnesord: Africa, Kenya, Nairobi, Informal sector, Hidden economy, Women, Economic conditions, Women workers, Urban planning, Women’s role, gender roles, case studies, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
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.

Beyond ”Gender and Stir” : Reflections on gender and SSR in the aftermath of African conflicts

Medarbetare: Eriksson Baaz, Maria | Utas, Mats
Utgivare: Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Africa, conflicts, Police, Armed forces, Defence policy, gender roles, Peacekeeping, Women’s participation, Security sector reform, Post-conflict reconstruction, case studies, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
As a policy field largely characterised by handbooks and manuals, gender and Security Sector Reform (SSR) has been insufficiently studied and analysed. Analytical discussion of what gendering SSRmeans is quite rare, as is the study of the already gendered nature of the security institutions that are the subject of intervention. This policy dialogue unpacks aspects of the discourses and practices regarding gender and SSR. It highlights limitations and problems both in the conceptualisation of gender and its incorporation into practical SSR work. The publication also demonstrates how researchers and policymakers often have divergent views of what gendering SSR means. Finally, it calls for closer and more constructive dialogue between researchers and practitioners, a dialogue which acknowledges the conditions and constraints in these two spheres of work.

Young female fighters in African wars : conflict and its consequences

Upphovspersoner: Utas, Mats | Persson, Mariam | Coulter, Chris
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: Civil war, Armed forces, Guerrillas, Females, women's participation, gender roles, Government programmes, Disarmament, Social implications, Survival strategies, Demobilization, Post-conflict reconstruction, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
In the numerous armed conflicts that are tearing the African continent apart, young women are participants and carry guns alongside their male comrades-in-arms. Challenging the stereotype of women in African wars as victims only, this issue of the Nordic Africa Institute Policy Dialogues shows how in modern African wars women have often been as active as men. Female fighters are victimized, yet they are not mere victims. Girls and young women who volunteer to fight often possess quite considerable strength and independence. Programmes for disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating former fighters must be based on better understanding of the range of women's roles and experiences in war and post-war settings in order to act in a gender-sensitive way and to empower this group of women in the aftermath of war.

The power of continuity : Ethiopia through the eyes of its children

Upphovsperson: Poluha, Eva
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2004
Ämnesord: children, Childhood, child rearing, cultural identity, Ethnicity, Family environment, gender roles, School environment, Social norms, Ethiopia, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
Children play a vital role as a source of information on politics but have been neglected as political actors in research contexts. In this study, children are used as a window to an Ethiopian society where hierarchical relations persist, despite the numerous political and administrative transformations of the past century. With data gathered through participant observation the book examines how young, Addis Abeba school children learn to adapt to and reproduce relations of super- and/or subordination based on gender, age, strength and social position. The children’s experiences are viewed in the historical context of state-citizen relations where hierarchy and obsession with control have been and continue to be dominant. The discussion focuses on the power of continuity in the reproduction of cultural patterns and political behaviour, and on how change towards more egalitarian relations could come about.  

African families in a global context

Upphovsperson: Therborn, Göran
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2006
Ämnesord: Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, demographic change, family, family structure, gender roles, social problems, Sociology, Sociologi
The family is one of the most important institutions of African societies. Where is it going today? How is it affected by global processes, cultural and political as well as economic? How does it compare with family developments in other parts of the world? These are questions, which this report addresses. It deals with – the African family in a comparative global context, focusing on patriarchy, sexuality and marriage, and fertility;– biological and social reproduction in Ghana under conditions of globalization and structural adjustment;– Nigerian marriage relations under the impact of current conditions;– family changes in the North (Britain) viewed from and compared with a family perspective from the South (South Africa).