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ENERGIA News Issue 2.2, May 1998

Resources: Books and Articles

Lightening the Load on Rural Women: How Appropriate is the Technology Directed Towards Africa

Deborah F. Bryceson and Michael K. McCall
In: Gender, Technology and Development 1 (1) 1997

The starting point for this paper is that intensification of agriculture in Africa over this century, particularly the move from long fallow cultivation to much shorter rotations, has disproportionately increased women's share of the labour input. The extra weeding required, the special activities such as mulching, portage of (increased) yields of crops from field to storage place, and stall feeding of cattle all tend to fall to women. At the same time their domestic tasks have not been reduced, and the habit of sending children to school means that they may not be available to help all day as they were traditionally. Where labour is in short supply - women's energy -, technology is the obvious solution. But have the technologies on offer really benefited women?

Taking a historical view, the paper suggests that the kinds of technologies offered in the 1960s were mostly aimed at raising agricultural output, especially cereals. These ‘Green Revolution’ technologies were concerned with land clearance and preparation - typically male tasks. Weeding, harvesting and transport of the crop remained non-mechanised. When the ‘Basic Needs’ approach was adopted by donor agencies in the 1970s, more attention was given to female work and household drudgery, and programmes of this era included mills to replace hand pounding of grain, oil seed pressers and pumps for water. Later, when it was perceived that there was an energy crisis in many rural areas, improved stoves were introduced with a view to reducing the need to gather firewood. Not all of these technologies were taken up by women, not least because in many cases women had insufficient purchasing power. Critics also note that the time freed up by use of these technologies is often spent on activities related to cash cropping, which generally results in economic benefits to male members of the household rather than to the women themselves. Besides, these technologies all cater to the traditional activities of women, and confirm that these are women's tasks, underlining the usual division of labour.

A third type of technology, according to the authors, is market-oriented and is designed to stimulate female autonomy. The development of new economic opportunities for women should lead to more independence of women and their gradual increase in confidence, bringing them more into the ‘public space’. Women who earn their own income are in a stronger position than women who are totally dependent on cash controlled by their menfolk. Thus energy technologies which provide the means for women to start a small business are working in the direction of female autonomy. But, the authors argue, technology on its own is not enough: there is a need for educational, institutional and even political changes too. In most cases, projects to introduce such technology have not included sufficient support factors of this kind.

An interesting suggestion is that technological innovations could be best directed towards unmarried teenage girls, because they have more time to participate, and they would later become wives and mothers themselves but with an increased awareness and a different perspective on the economic opportunities available. If they are able to accumulate some capital through independent economic activity, in the long run this might alter the balance of power between men and women in society.

Reading Energy, Gender and Transport in Africa

Michael K. McCall

Are African women stronger than men? Is that why they do most of the headloading and porterage? Evidence from field studies shows definitively that local load carrying (up to 10 km. or more) is performed overwhelmingly by females of all ages. This is not only the transport of water and firewood and of young children, usually associated with women's responsibilities, but also carrying the harvested crops, foods and farm inputs [Doran; Kaira; Malmberg-Calvo; Bryceson & Howe]. Moreover it is by no means restricted to domestic (unwaged) work. Studies in Ethiopia, Kenya and elsewhere identify the significance of women's paid porterage; they also highlight the chronic health problems connected with headloading or backpacking bulky loads up to 50 kg. and more [Haile; Kaira; Curtis]. Women also feature in the heavy and hot tasks of labour-intensive road maintenance and construction, belying western conceptions of ‘the weaker sex’ [Lexow; Howe & Bryceson].

There are exceptions to these generalisations in particular cultural traditions, but when it comes to using vehicles, whether animal-powered or mechanised, the situation remarkably changes. Operation, as well as ownership, of donkey or ox-carts and sleds, tractor-trailers, motorbikes, trucks and vans invariably becomes a male domain. The interesting situations are where women have taken to “intermediate” transport as a means to improve productivity, reduce drudgery or simply save their energy. Technical, social and cultural aspects of women's use of, especially, bicycles and pack animals are reviewed [Starkey; Fielding & Pearson; Doran].

The very different circumstances for urban women have received much less attention from researchers, planners or technologists. An exceptional series of ‘portraits’ are those of Accra's female traders’ economic and social networks and their usage of human power and motorised vehicles [Grieco].

Likewise, there are no studies of the gender implications of the substitution of telephony for energy-intensive transport and the on-going acceleration of urban and rural systems; an exception from pre-“mobile phone” times being [Meerbach et al.].

There is not yet a comprehensive review encompassing women, energy and transport issues - not surprising, considering the broad sweep of factors in gender relations, technology development, microeconomics, policy instruments, and spatial planning involved. Bryceson & Howe provide the broadest and best-grounded picture, in part because they locate the debates firmly within the broader discussion of ‘appropriate rural transport policies’, an urgent issue for rural men as much as for women. Though, for donor institution-associated views, see also: [ IFTRD; Riverson & Carapetis (World Bank), Lexow & Skjonsberg (NORAD)].

Back to the original question - a physiological study once suggested precisely that “… some anatomical change has occurred, as a result of carrying large loads since childhood,” enabling Kenyan women to carry loads much more energy-efficiently than the tough army recruits they were compared with [Maloly], needs no further comment!

• Bryceson, Deborah F. and John Howe (1993) , Rural household transport on Africa: reducing the burden on women, World Development 21 (11)
• Curtis, Val (1986), Women and the Transport of Water, London : Intermediate Technology Publications (64p.)
• Doran, Jo (1996), Rural Transport, London : IT Publications for UNIFEM Energy & Environment Technology Source Books. (72p.)
• Fielding, Denis and Anne Pearson (eds.) (1991), Donkeys, Mules and Horses in Tropical Agricultural Development, Edinburgh : University of Edinburgh.
• Fekerte Haile (1991), Women Fuelwood Carriers in Addis Ababa and the Peri-Urban Forest, Addis Ababa : National Urban Planning Institute and ILO and IDRC.
• Grieco, Margaret, Nana Apt and Jeff Turner (1996), At Christmas and on Rainy Days: Transport, Travel and the Female Traders of Accra, Aldershot : Avebury (268p.)
• Howe, John and Deborah Bryceson (1994), Women and Labour-Based Road Works in Sub-Saharan Africa, Delft, IHE, IHE Working Paper IP-5.
• Kaira, Charles K. (1983), Transport needs of the Rural Population in Developing Countries, Karlsruhe: Universitat Karlsruhe, Regional Science Institute, PhD Thesis. IFR Schr. Nr. 21. (170p.)
• Lexow, Janne and Else Skjonsberg (1989), Good Aid for Women? Women and Roads in Botswana, Oslo : NORAD Evaluation Report 6.88
• Malmberg-Calvo, Christina (1994), Case Study on the Role of Women in Rural Transport, Washington DC : World Bank, and ECA, SSATP Working Paper No. 11. (59p.)
• Maloly, G.M.O. et al (1986), Energetic cost of carrying loads: have African women discovered an economic way?, Nature 319, p.668-669.
• Meerbach, Gabriella, et al. (1991), Senegal: telephone usage in a rural area, Intermedia 19 (2) 21-26.
• Riverson, John and Steve Carapetis (1992), Intermediate Means of Transport in Sub-Saharan Africa, Washington DC: World Bank Technical Paper No. 161. (38p.)
• Starkey, Paul (ed.) (1997), Donkey Power Benefits Vol. I, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia: ATNESA