CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Knowledge about women’s work is still very scares and incomplete despite all the much study on women’s work over the years. Women do not have enough history recorded about their work that is why it is important that woman historian’s first step is to proclaim that women ‘have always worked’ (Kessler Haris, 1981).

Throughout history women have been considered inferior to men. The traditional functions of a female in the society were to stay home, cook, clean and raise children. Women were considered to be weak, had little to say, and were mistreated because of their low self-esteem. Increasingly,  women are getting out of their home jobs as home makers and are forced to combine their work at home as mothers, wives and homemakers and their jobs outside the home. The feminist movements have argued for a desire to renew the economic and political standings of women to a position of equality with men. 

The feminist movement took root in the 1960’s and today, immense progress could be noted in the job market, in the positions females are obtaining and occupying. This explains the massive entry of women to the world of work. According to UNDP (2000), women are 2/3 less likely than men to get waged employment, while only 3 out of 10 women in the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa are paid employees. 

Between 1983 and 1992, women  considerably  increased their employment in four out of the six major occupational groups – managerial and professional specialties by 5.1 million; technical, sales, and administrative support, by 3.3 million; service occupations, by 1.3 million; and precision production, craft, and repair, by 129,000 (U.S. Department of Labour, 1993). Women made substantial progress in obtaining jobs in virtually all managerial and professional specialty occupations. In 1983 they held 40 percent (9.7 million) of these high paying jobs and 47 percent (14.7 million) in 1992 (U.S. Department of Labour, 1993).  

Therefore since the industrial revolution women have entered the world of work in varying areas and professions with diverse skills and energies. In recent times, the debate on the role of women in societies especially their participation in economic activity has generated a lot of controversy, with one side of the debate arguing against increased women participation in all spheres of economic and social activities,   biological and cultural basis, whilst the other side has argued that a woman’s status in society depends crucially on her participation in economic and social activities and that the biology of sex does not confine the woman to the home  (U.S. Department of Labor, 1993).  There are many questions on how women’s involvement in paid work does contribute to the household. The most common argument says that women’s participation in income-generating activities will lead to women’s empowerment because by having access to resources a woman can improve her bargaining position, thereby allowing for greater control over decisions and life choices.

If a woman has income of her own, she presumably has a greater ability to take care of herself and is therefore less dependent on her husband or others for survival. Her ability to negotiate within the household should increase not only because she has more to offer the household, but also because she has an improved fallback position. Greater bargaining power in the household is seen as empowering because it affords a woman greater control over her and her family’s life. Other arguments suggest that working may contribute to empowerment because it allows women to participate in the public sphere, to interact with a wider network of individuals and because it can increase self-esteem or self-worth.

Women who moved into none traditional blue-collar occupations often find to their surprise that such jobs are better paid, provide more flexible work schedules and are more interesting than their previous occupations. They can have time for both their domestic chores and still work out of home. This enables the women to be able to contribute to the day to day management of the home financially in several ways like in feeding, family contributions and many other monetary ways. In some countries however job opportunities for women are narrowing rather than broadening. For example, as China moves away from a communist-based theoretical commitment to women’s rights towards a more capitalist-based commitment to profit, female workers are often the first to suffer. In the late 1970s,a higher percentage of women were employed outside the home than in most Western capitalist countries, but now women workers are the last hired and first fired, and 70percent of jobless young people in the cities are female (Sun, 1993). Similar problems are faced by women in the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe were communist ideas of egalitarianism have swept aside and women faced discrimination and strong pressures to stay at home rather than seek employment (Lobodzinska, 1996)

1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There are many questions on how women’s involvement in paid work does contribute to the household. The most common argument says that women’s participation in income-generating activities will lead to women’s empowerment because by having access to resources a woman can improve her bargaining position, thereby allowing for greater control over decisions and life choices.

If a woman has income of her own, she presumably has a greater ability to take care of herself and is therefore less dependent on her husband or others for survival. Her ability to negotiate within the household should increase not only because she has more to offer the household, but also because she has an improved fallback position. Greater bargaining power in the household is seen as empowering because it affords a woman greater control over her and her family’s life. Other arguments suggest that working may contribute to empowerment because it allows women to participate in the public sphere, to interact with a wider network of individuals and because it can increase self-esteem or self-worth.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are arguments that say that working is not enough to empower women because the barriers that stand in the way of women’s control over their lives and equality are just too great to be overcome by employment alone (Elliof M.(1996).

 Here, the point is that structural factors like poverty, and not choice, lead women into paid employment thereby limiting its potential for empowerment. On top of this, the job opportunities that are available to most women in Molyko (Cameroon) and other developing countries are limited. Both gender ideologies and women’s lower education levels mean that the jobs available to most women require little skill, pay poorly, afford no security and involve poor working conditions. This, combined with the fact that participation in income-generating activities does not erase women’s domestic responsibilities, suggests that most working women face a triple burden of domestic responsibilities, employment and the burden of ensuring their family’s survival Gray and Tudball(2002).

These arguments are quite simple, but the reality probably lies somewhere in the middle. While it does not appear to be the case that working is a ticket to empowerment, working does have the potential to increase women’s autonomy and importance in the domestic sphere; however, the process by which employment could lead to empowerment is much more complex than the above arguments recognize and involves a number of important factors, both in terms of the conditions under which employment takes place and it is against this background that we are considering the type of empowerment.

1.3GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This study is to investigate the contribution of Women’s paid work to the household.

1.3 SPECIFICOBJECTIVES
1. To identify the nature and characteristics of women’s paid work.
2. To determine the contributions of women’s paid work to the household

3. To examine the challenges of women’s paid work
   4. To identify coping strategies of women doing paid work