Livelihoods

Citation:

Bradshaw, Sarah, Brian Linneker, and Lisa Overton. 2017. “Extractive Industries as Sites of Supernormal Profits and Supernormal Patriarchy?” Gender & Development 25 (3): 439–54. 

Authors: Sarah Bradshaw, Brian Linneker, Lisa Overton

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This article considers how patriarchal power relations between men and women are produced and reproduced within extractive industries, and examines the idea that the ‘supernormal profits’ to be made there encourage the development of ‘supernormal patriarchy’. By looking at the sites where extraction takes place and relationships between men and women within these sites, we show the extreme and exaggerated gender roles and relations that are found here. We nuance this account by highlighting the need to recognise that patriarchal power is not felt equally by all women and men. Exploring the different roles women adopt in the extractives context we demonstrate the fluidity of women’s identities as workers, ‘whores’, and wives with a focus on transactional sex. The article demonstrates the importance of not seeing women merely as victims of patriarchal relations, or making assumptions about how these relations operate, or the form they take. Better understanding of the range of gender roles adopted in the extractives and the supernormal patriarchal relations that produce and reproduce these is needed by policymakers. This will enable them to promote gender equality and natural resource justice, as part of an agenda to redistribute wealth gains from natural resource extraction.

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
El presente artículo examina cómo son producidas y reproducidas las  relaciones de poder patriarcales entre hombres y mujeres al interior de las industrias extractivas. Además, analiza la idea de que las “utilidades
extraordinarias” que se producen allí constituyen un aliciente para el desarrollo de un “patriarcado extraordinario”. Observando los sitios en que se realiza la extracción y las relaciones entre hombres y mujeres que se establecen en los mismos, los autores dan cuenta de los roles y las relaciones de género extremos y exagerados que pueden encontrarse en estos lugares. Por otra parte, matizan estos hallazgos y destacan la necesidad de reconocer que el poder patriarcal no es experimentado de la misma manera por las mujeres que por los hombres. Al examinar los distintos roles adoptados por las mujeres en el contexto extractivo, los autores muestran la fluidez que exhiben las identidades de las mujeres como trabajadoras, como “prostitutas” y como esposas, centrándose en el sexo transaccional. El artículo señala la importancia que reviste no ver a las mujeres solo como víctimas de relaciones patriarcales, no formular supuestos sobre cómo operan estas relaciones, y no definir su forma. Por ello, los formuladores de políticas deben comprender mejor la variedad exhibida por los roles de género presentes en la industria extractiva y las relaciones patriarcales extraordinarias que se producen y reproducen a partir de los mismos. De esta manera podrán promover la igualdad de género y la justicia en torno a los recursos naturales como parte de una agenda orientada a distribuir las ganancias producidas por su extracción.

FRENCH ABSTRACT:
Cet article traite de la manière dont les rapports de force patriarcaux entre les hommes et les femmes sont produits et reproduits au sein des industries extractives, et examine par ailleurs l’idée selon laquelle
les « bénéfices supranormaux » qui peuvent y être réalisés encouragent le développement d’un « patriarcat supernormal ». En se penchant sur les sites dans lesquels a lieu l’extraction et sur les rapports entre les hommes et les femmes dans ces sites, nous mettons en évidence les rôles de genre extrêmes et exagérés et les relations que l’on y observe. Pour nuancer ce compte rendu, nous mettons en relief la nécessité de reconnaître le fait que le pouvoir patriarcal n’est pas ressenti en même mesure par toutes les femmes et tous les hommes. Nous examinons les différents rôles qu’assument les femmes dans le contexte extractif pour mettre en évidence la fluidité des identités des femmes comme travailleuses, « putains » et épouses, en nous concentrant sur les rapports sexuels transactionnels. Cet article montre combien il est important de ne pas voir les femmes comme seulement des victimes des rapports patriarcaux, ou de faire des suppositions sur la manière dont ces rapports fonctionnent, ou la forme qu’ils prennent. Il faut que les personnes chargées de formuler les politiques comprennent mieux la variété de rôles sexo-spécifiques adoptés dans les industries extractives et les rapports patriarcaux supranormaux qui produisent et reproduisent ces rôles. Ils pourront ainsi promouvoir l’égalité entre les sexes et la justice en matière de ressources naturelles, dans le cadre d’un programme de redistribution de l’augmentation des richesses tirées de l’extraction des ressources naturelles.

Keywords: extractive industries, gender inequality, supernormal profit, supernormal patriarchy

Topics: Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Patriarchy, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2017

Citation:

Melesse, Tigist M., and Yesuf M. Awel. 2020. “Land Tenure, Gender, and Productivity in Ethiopia and Tanzania.” In Women and Sustainable Human Development: Empowering Women in Africa, edited by Maty Konte and Nyasha Tirivayi, 89-108. Maastricht, The Netherlands: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Tigist M. Melesse, Yesuf M. Awel

Abstract:

Agricultural land use and tenure systems in many African countries are characterized by subsistence production and a communal land tenure system. Reforming the tenure system in a way that ensures tenure security could promote sustainable agriculture in the region. In addition, the right of women to own land is essential for rural development. This chapter, therefore, analyses the gender differential effects of land tenure security on productivity in East Africa using Living Standard Measurement Study data from Ethiopia and Tanzania. The chapter uses plot- and household-level data to investigate the effect of land title and other determinants of crop productivity. The main results show that tenure security positively and significantly affects households’ productivity in general and is marginally significant for female-headed households in particular. Potential indicators that positively correlate with crop productivity are total land and plot sizes, inorganic fertilizer use, input credit access, herbicide use, soil, and plot type. Policy implications are based on the results.

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Households, Land Tenure, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Ethiopia, Tanzania

Year: 2020

Citation:

Brottem, Leif V., and Lassine Ba. 2019. “Gendered Livelihoods and Land Tenure: The Case of Artisanal Gold Miners in Mali, West Africa.” Geoforum 105 (October): 54–62.

Authors: Leif V. Brottem, Ba Lassine

Abstract:

Artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) is an important source of income for millions of sub-Saharan Africans. Scholars from various disciplines have demonstrated that urban and rural Africans take up mining as a response to unemployment, lack of credit and poor income prospects in the agricultural sector, and as a way for young people to achieve a degree of personal autonomy. Although several studies have investigated the role of women in artisanal mining, little attention has been given to the gendered land tenure rights that govern mineral resource access and that shape the prospects for mining as a viable livelihood strategy. This article presents evidence that women exploit artisanal mining opportunities in ways that differ from those of men based on gender differences in land tenure relations. Customary and freehold tenure regimes—through their flexibility and place-based functionality—create unique income-generating and investment opportunities for women at artisanal gold mining sites in western Mali. Specifically, the unique labor demands and commercial aspects of artisanal gold extraction interact with the host-stranger dynamics of customary tenure regimes to create labor market opportunities that women are able to exploit. Mining income invested in freehold land property enables women to achieve or at least strive for a degree of financial autonomy that is difficult or impossible within the unequal gender relations that characterize other rural economic activities, especially agriculture. Customary and formal land tenure institutions play a complex role that both constrains and enables these livelihood strategies, which are based on geographic mobility and power-laden social relations within rural economies that are increasingly monetized.

Keywords: artisanal mining, land tenure, gender, political ecology, livelihoods, West Africa

Topics: Economies, Informal Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Land Tenure, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Mali

Year: 2019

Citation:

Lawson, Lynda, and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt. 2020. “Women Sapphire Traders in Madagascar: Challenges and Opportunities for Empowerment.” The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2): 405–11. 

Authors: Lynda Lawson, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

Abstract:

Recent literature has seen a growing appreciation of livelihoods based on informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) that supplements women’s primary reproductive roles, leaving a gap in the parts women play at the trading end of the value chain of ASM. This paper fills that void by adding to the growing body of research on gendered trade in ASM. It focuses on women traders and the complex challenges and opportunities they face while carrying out this informal trade. The paper is based on extensive field research, interviews, and focus group discussions of women sapphire traders in southwest Madagascar, colloquially known as “ladies in hats,” who work in clan-based associations described as nascent proto-institutions. It draws upon institutional and entrepreneurial theory to understand their position in the sapphire value chain, and illuminates how women’s status could be strengthened to create the foundation for a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper also asks how women traders can be empowered in view of the current opportunities and challenges, and suggests that the proto-institutions could form the basis of a cooperative or a small company if regulatory and financial settings for these women can be improved and if there is an opportunity for them to formalize their trade.

Keywords: women in informal trade in Africa, Madagascar women, Madagascar sapphire, gender and mining

Topics: Economies, Informal Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Madagascar

Year: 2020

Citation:

Amadi, Luke A., Mina M. Ogbanga, and James E. Agena. 2015. “Climate Change and Feminist Environmentalism in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.” African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 9 (9): 361–71.

Authors: Luke A. Amadi, Mina M. Ogbanga, James E. Agena

Abstract:

Feminist environmentalist debate explores possible linkages between women and environmental issues such as inequality. One of the most pressing global problem at the centre of this debate is climate change vulnerability. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) creates global policy awareness on the realities of climate change vulnerability, women in the poor coastal regions of the periphery societies such as the Niger Delta, Nigeria, prone to environmental degradation seem to be missing out. This subject matter has been of immense policy concern. The increase in recent decades of environmental disasters, deleterious effects of oil resource exploitation by the Multinational Corporations (MNCs), pollution, gas flaring, acid rain, sea level rise, ozone layer depletion, global warming and related pressures, provide the need to explore feminist environmental challenges. As all such problems manifest with divergent climate related implications, the most fundamental challenge they pose to women seem less talked about. Niger Delta women who are largely bread winners in most rural households are at risk as their subsistence relies heavily on the natural environment such as farming, fishing, petty trading, gathering of periwinkles, oysters, crayfish etc. To explore this dynamic, the study deployed a desk review of relevant secondary data to examine possible linkages between feminist environmentalism and climate change mitigation. Findings suggest that climate change, mitigation has been minimal. The paper made some policy recommendations.

Keywords: environmental security, climate change, women, development, Niger Delta

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Multi-National Corporations Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2015

Citation:

Rosewarne, Stuart. 2006. “Socialist Ecology’s Necessary Engagement with Ecofeminism.” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 17 (4): 78-86.

Author: Stuart Rosewarne

Annotation:

Summary:
"However, as much as O'Connor's formulation of the second contradiction has meant that consideration is afforded these other social movements, there remains a conviction within the classical Marxist tradition that regards the working class as continuing to be charged with carrying responsibility for a transformative politics to effect capitalism's demise. The study details one particular campaign to analyze how trade liberalization and the globalization of production is undermining the viability of cotton cultivation and the livelihood of small croppers in many parts of the world" (Rosewarne 2006).

Topics: Class, Economies, Economic Inequality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Globalization, Livelihoods

Year: 2006

Citation:

Tacoli, Cecilia, and Richard Mabala. 2010. “Exploring Mobility and Migration in the Context of Rural—Urban Linkages: Why Gender and Generation Matter.” Environment and Urbanization 22 (2): 389–95.

Authors: Cecilia Tacoli, Richard Mabala

Abstract:

This paper draws on case studies in Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania and Vietnam to explore the different ways in which migration intersects with the changing relations between rural and urban areas and activities, and in the process transforms livelihoods and the relations between young and older men and women. Livelihood strategies are becoming increasingly diverse, and during interviews people were asked to describe their first, second and third occupations, the time allocated to each and the income that each produced. In all study regions, the number of young people migrating is increasing. This is influenced not only by expanding employment opportunities in destination areas but also by power inequalities within households, which means limited opportunities at home. It is increasingly common for young women to migrate, in part because they have no land rights and few prospects at home, in part because of more employment opportunities elsewhere. Young women also tend to move further than young men and for longer, and also remit a higher proportion of their income. Older men expect young men to migrate but often criticize young women for doing so, although women’s migration is more accepted as their remittances contribute more to household income. However, if young women had better prospects at home, it would limit their need to move to what is often exploitative and insecure work.

Keywords: gender, generation, livelihoods, migration, rural-urban linkages

Topics: Age, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Vietnam

Year: 2010

Citation:

Resurrección, Bernadette P., and Edsel E. Sajor. 2015. “Gender, Floods and Mobile Subjects: A Postdisaster View.” In Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia, edited by Ragnhild Lund, Philippe Doneys, and Bernadette P. Resurrección, 207-34. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

Authors: Bernadette P. Resurrección, Edsel E. Sajor

Annotation:

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Security Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2015

Citation:

Boyer, Kate, Robyn Mayes, and Barbara Pini. 2017. “Narrations and Practices of Mobility and Immobility in the Maintenance of Gender Dualisms.” Mobilities 12 (6): 847–60. 

Authors: Kate Boyer, Robyn Mayers, Barbara Pini

Abstract:

This paper analyses the role of practices and representations of mobility in supporting particular kinds of gender orders. While scholarship has shown the various ways women are materially and symbolically ‘fixed’ in place, less attention has been paid to how discourses and practices of mobility interface with systems of gender differentiation more broadly. This work is based on a robust empirical base of 55 interviews, 90 h of participant observation and an analysis of museum displays in Kalgoorile, Western Australia, an iconic frontier mining town selected for this investigation as a site of strongly bifurcated gender discourses. Analysing our field data through the lens of feminist theory which problematizes gender binaries, we argue that while some narrations of gender mobilities serve to reinforce gender binaries, lived practices of movement can also destabilise (idealised) notions of gendered movement. This paper extends conceptual work by advancing understanding about the role of mobility within systems of gender differentiation, showing how lived practices of mobility are just as likely to challenge idealised patterns of gendered movement as they are to reinforce these patterns.

Keywords: mobility, sex work, skin-work, gender binaries, mining, Kalgoorlie Australia

Topics: Gender, Gendered Discourses, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2017

Citation:

Rocheleau, Dianne. 2007. “Listening to the Landscapes of Mama Tingo: From the ‘Woman Question’ in Sustainable Development to Feminist Political Ecology in Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic.” In A Companion to Feminist Geography, edited by Lise Nelson and Joni Seager, 419–33. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.

Author: Dianne Rocheleau

Abstract:

Topics: Class, Development, Environment, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries Countries: Dominican Republic

Year: 2007