Women in pastoral societies in Africa

Abstract

Existing literature on African pastoralism only marginally reported issues on women in pastoral societies, particularly their socioeconomic roles and contributions to livestock production and development within pastoral environments/ societies until the 1970s. In contrast, men's activities and roles are often reported by scholars as if women are idle in pastoral societies. The root of this somewhat relegation of female activities is not peculiar to studies on pastoral groups; it is common in most patriarchal societies. Even in scholarship, pastoral women were only passively mentioned in anthropological literature prior to the 1970s. Women in pastoral societies have culturally assigned roles that are influenced by so many factors - social, cultural, and economic, among others. It is therefore pertinent to highlight the significant gender-specific and non-gender-specific socioeconomic contributions of pastoral women, as well as the cultural and health constraints confronting women in pastoralists' environments. Women are economically involved in direct livestock production like cattle herding and indirect complementary livestock activities like milking, processing, and sale of dairy products (cheese, butter, and milk), crop farming, petty trading, skin/leather works, extracting rangeland products like firewood, and charcoal, among others. Pastoral women are also socially proficient in household management, co-decision-making with husbands, food preparation, birthing and child nutrition (breastfeeding), and leadership in pastoral women associations. In spite of these significant contributions to the development of pastoral societies, they are still culturally subordinated and not allowed participation in some spheres in relation to men. The chapter concludes that there is need to articulate how social justice initiatives could be applied using the gender social conflict analytical frame to bridge the gaps between the dominant group/gender (pastoral men) and the marginal group/ gender (pastoral women) and bring about social change.