FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN THE FORMAL SECTOR AND DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2003 by Njoh, Ambe J, Rigos, Platon N

It is easy to appreciate this line of argument once one understands that the European colonial era in Africa coincided with a period in European history when women were generally confined to domestic, as opposed to public and/or "economically productive" roles.5 European colonial authorities sought to duplicate this model in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts in this connection entailed three major activities. First, colonial authorities enacted employment policies that ensured the exclusion of women from jobs in the formal sector of the economy. The second activity in this regard entailed the introduction of a form of gender-based division of labor in the agricultural sector that encouraged men to cultivate cash crops while women specialized in the cultivation of food crops. The works of WID critics such as Ester Boserup,6 drew attention to this phenomenon in the early 1970s. Boserup's work7 is noteworthy in this regard, particularly because it constitutes a critique of colonial and post-colonial agricultural policies that were/are skewed in favor of men. Before Boserup, African women such those in Kenya8 and Igboland in Nigeria,9 were already actively protesting colonial and post-colonial policies that deliberately or unintentionally marginalized them (women). Finally, there was the colonial policy of providing formal education almost exclusively to men. Thus, almost all the schools dating back to the colonial era in sub-Saharan African countries were initially for 'boys only.' In Cameroon, for instance, Njoh notes that girls had no access to any of the pre-independence anglophone post-primary educational institutions, including St. Joseph's College, Sasse (1938); Cameroon Protestant College, BaIi (1948); and Government Technical College, Ombe (1952).10 Two decades after independence, most countries in the region continued to enforce policies that substantially limited the access of females to education. Another example from Cameroon is illustrative. More than a decade after independence, there were as many as three government-owned secondary schools-Government Technical College, Ombe; Government Bilingual Grammar Schools (Yaounde and Man O' War Bay), which provided tuition-free post-primary school education.11 However, none of them accepted girls.

Thus, until recently, there was an abysmal absence of women prepared for roles in the formal sector of the economies of sub-Saharan African countries. More noteworthy, is the fact that on the eve of independence there were no qualified women for jobs in the emerging bureaucracies, which were, and remain, the singular most important source of employment in these countries. This in essence marked the beginning of the gender-based socio-economic disparities, which have become quite prevalent in the economies of countries in the region.

Efforts to reverse this situation have taken place at both the national and international levels. In the first instance, national governments have, especially since the 1970s, embarked on programs designed to encourage female participation in education and, ultimately, in the formal labor market. As noted earlier, some countries (e.g., Cameroon) have created government ministerial bodies charged with the responsibility of advancing the causes of women, while others (e.g., South Africa and Namibia), have introduced affirmative action programs that have as an objective increasing female participation in the formal labor market. Affirmative action (A.A.) is, broadly speaking, an extension of the notion of equality of opportunity and non-discrimination. It was first introduced in the United States in the 1930s in an attempt to reverse unfair employment practices against union members, and later in an effort to facilitate the reinsertion of war veterans in the labor market.12