Urbanization, Gender and the Informal Labour Sector in Africa
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Date
2007
Authors
Eshiet I.
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Publisher
International Institute of Social History (IISH)
Abstract
Urbanisation as a strategy of development has a differential impact on men and women. These differences are particularly accentuated by the peripheral nature of African urbanisation. One of the regrettable impacts of contemporary urbanisation in Africa is its ability to undermine women’s traditional spheres of power and influence, while at the same time creating new conditions for their further dependence. The informal sector as a social and economic category is one such condition. Limited by the stringent requirements and gender segregation current within the formal sector, women have turned to the informal sector, as a survival strategy within the urban socio-economic milieu. However, informal sector work offers only slight relief to women from their grinding poverty. Informal women workers are subject to double exploitation. First, as a proletarian group within the informal sector, which is characterised by low wages, low productivity and precarious working conditions. Second, as women, a gender that occupies a subordinate position in the gender order in society. For even within the informal sector, women are still discriminated against, in terms of wages and other facilities that would otherwise enhance their productivity and socio-economic status. This paper assesses women’s activities in the urban informal sector and observes that the regulatory and policy environment has been hostile to these activities.
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Citation
Eshiet, I. (2007) Urbanization, Gender and the Informal Labour Sector in Africa. Global South Sephis E- Magazine, January 3(2): 29 -33. Amsterdam, Netherlands: International Institute of Social History (IISH)