Challenging shea as a woman’s crop–masculinities and resource control in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This article pays attention to the gendered resource struggles and changing division of labor of the feminized shea fruit in Burkina Faso. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore how the increased demand for shea has affected gendered natural resource access and divisions of labor in the local. Shea, often described as ‘women’s gold’, is one of few natural resources which women control harvest, processing and earnings. The increased demand for shea on the global market has therefore been presented as a benefactor for women’s economic empowerment in Burkina Faso. Yet, studies have pointed to that women seem to be sidelined in the shea commodity chain. This study explores how gendered natural resource struggles are formed in the local shea commodity chain by departing from three principles of gender analysis, access and control, labor division and subjectivities. The data was collected through ethnographic fieldwork in the two rural villages of Boessen and Tonogo in Burkina Faso. The analysis sheds light on the particularities in how men’s shea practices form masculinities and rearrange gendered labor norms. The study moreover shows how contestations of male involvement is done by targeting manhood and labor norm perceptions. Male involvement both re-produces hegemonic masculinities where male shea control delimits women’s income possibilities. Whilst it also shapes alternative masculinities which embraces cooperation and joint decision making within households.