THEME: Increase or decrease in the profitability of productive activities can lead to gender changes in control.

According to an IFAD study under the Gender Strengthening Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa, done in 2000, rural Uganda, as many other countries, has a degree of asymmetry between women’s labour contribution and women’s decision-making on the use of the income generated. This is most noticeable in agriculture, which is the main source of income for the majority of rural households. A minority of households have small income-generating activities. There are certain traditional ‘men’s’ crops (such as tobacco and cotton) and ‘women’s’ crops (such as fruits and vegetables). When larger livestock or cash crops are sold, men decide how the resulting income should be spent. This does not mean that women make no labour contribution to cash crops. Experience in sunflower-growing under IFAD-financed projects in Apac and Kumi showed that most tasks were shared equally by men and women, but this makes no difference in income control. Women control items intended primarily for home consumption, particularly those produced or cared for on their own plots, such as vegetables, pigs and chickens. If they sell some of these items to generate cash, they can decide what to do with that cash.

Changes in control over productive activities and the resulting income can occur when the activities’ profitability changes in response to market or other conditions. Learning under IFAD-supported projects suggests that when a crop becomes profitable, men tend to take over its control. This has happened with vegetable growing in some cases. Where a cash crop decreases in profitability, as occurred in the case of sesame in Apac, the reverse can happen. In the nineties, men there took an interest in the marketing of sesame, but now they are content to leave it to women. In Kibaale and Hoima, the study found that the price of robusta coffee was so low that men neglected the crop and left its harvesting to women. However, where crops are not eaten but are produced exclusively for sale (such as tobacco and cotton), men may continue to control their marketing and income, even if profitability is low.

In principal, women tend to control the income resulting from their off-farm income-generating activities, such as beer brewing, food processing and the operating of small ‘restaurants’. Income from male off-farm activities such as brick-making and charcoal-burning usually stays with the husband. However, because of the way women have been socialized, or because of illiteracy, they will often have their husbands handle their accounts. Within the household, part of the income is pooled for household expenses. But husband or wife may retain part of it for personal use.

Both the men and women consulted by the study agreed that women tend to spend most of their income on basic household needs. By contrast, men tend to retain more of the income they control for their personal use. This is especially the case with income from any off-farm activities. According to women, much of men’s income is spent on drinking, smoking and leisure. However, in certain parts of Uganda, such as Apac and Kumi, husbands are more likely than elsewhere to entrust the income to their wives, to prevent its misuse. But some men are afraid to do so, in case the women might be tempted to leave them.

Women tend to spend their income on such items as sauce ingredients (meat, fish), household essentials (matches, soap, salt, sugar, oil), cooking utensils and children’s schooling (uniforms, pens, books). Men are expected to pay for more expensive items, such as: house-building and repairs; radios; taxes; sons’ marriages and vehicles and secondary school fees. Both men’s and women’s income can be used for farm inputs (seed, tools, hired labour), animals and paying for medical treatment.

The general nature of women’s control over and use of income is fairly well recognized by development projects. What is less well understood or taken into account, is how such control can change, and in fact be changed by the project itself. This can occur, for instance, when the project results in a major increase in profitability of a ‘women’s’ crop.

Adapted from:

FAO. 2000. IFAD’s Gender Strengthening Programme for East and Southern Africa – Uganda Field Diagnostic Study(Draft). Rome.