With Gambia as its end-to-end example this article demonstrates that women’s liberation still has far to go in West Africa, or all of Africa for that matter. A quote from the Gambia Women, Law and Customary Practice book sums it all up: “Women’s value is positively and almost solely related to their sexual attractiveness to men and their marriage ability.” (08-DEC-04)

This article was originally published in the Banjul-based Gambian daily the Independent on 6 December. The same day, it was released also on www.allAfrica.com. It has been re-edited for publication here.

The Gambia is a poor country, placed ninth amongst the ten least developed countries in the world and its women are its poorest citizens (UNDP 1998,15,31-33,128-30). According to The Gambia’s central statistics department’s 1993 household economic survey, men’s earnings per capita were four times those of women’s (UNDP 1997,69) in a country where the real GDP capita (1998) is about $267.

Female illiteracy twice that of male
According to The Gambia women, law and customary practice book, “over 40% of Gambians are illiterate, and of the literate, there are twice as many men, 55%, as women 27% (CSD 1993,8). More urban than rural Gambians are illiterate (42.2% and 32.4% respectively), and 39.4% of Gambians aged 7 and over have attained some education (CSD 1993,10,16). Its “top 10 sectors” are trade, agriculture, public administration, transport, real estate, manufacturing, construction, communication, hotels and restaurants, and financial institutions (UNDP 1997,15), and 60.4% of the male and 40% of the female population is economically active (CSD 1993,39).

Education of girls improper to their role as wives and mothers
Along with the economic bias against sending girls to school, there are the fears that education will render girls unsuitable for their “proper” roles as wives and mothers, perhaps affecting their marriage ability, and that education is a threat to girls’ sexual virtue. “The perception also exists that education is “wasted” on girls, both in terms of the family’s future on investment in girls’ education, and in terms of perceived lesser intellectual ability of girls compared to boys” (Kane etal. 1996) It is believed that women’s most important and appropriate role is domestic (child bearing and rearing, housework, and other household reproductive labor), with responsibilities associated with this role undervalued in The Gambia (Women’s Bureau n.d Skramstad 1990; Beijing Report 1995). Women are generally expected to take a secondary, passive role in public and political life (Beijing Report 1995), and are considered less suitable then men political positions or those of high responsibility (Women’s Bureau n.d, Skramstad 1990).

Signs of improvement
Within the Gambian context, women have made great strides in their levels of literacy and education. Nonetheless, there exist a rural-urban bias, where 39% of urban women and only 16% of rural women are reported to have had some form of education (CSD, 1993,17). In the past 10 years, the number of literate women had doubled, but again, there remains a huge gap between rural and urban women (18.3% and 40% literacy respectively) (CSD 1993, 8, 10). Over 32% of Gambian women aged 7 and above had some education, but only 23% of women have completed secondary education, and only 0.6% have completed a first or postgraduate degree. Men report higher achievement rates at every stage, with 46% reporting exposure to some education, 32% completing secondary school, and 1.4% attaining a degree (CSD 1993, 16-17). The Gambia’s Central Statistics Department’s (1993, 21) Survey further reveals that less than 41% of women have completed vocational training.

Men employed in formal sector, women in informal
Although women are less “economically active” than men, they outnumber male workers in the informal sector. However, in the formal sector, there are over three times as many men than women employed (CSD 1994,79). According to the 1994 Employment and Remuneration Survey in the formal private sector conducted by the Central Statistic Department, less than 32% of formal private sector employees were female (UNDP 1997,69). 67% of economically active women are engaged in crop production-the only sector where the number of women workers is greater than the men (CSD 1993,43). Nonetheless, even in the agricultural sector, men vastly outnumber women at the managerial level (CSD 1993,64) and in the formal sector (CSD 1994,82).

Poverty is feminised and rural
All this is to note that given women’s paid occupational position, it should come as no surprise that poverty is more acute among women, particularly those in the rural areas, and to learn that poverty is feminised and rural in The Gambia (UNDP 1997). Furthermore, female-headed household in The Gambia are still comparatively rare but are on the increase. Female-headed households are more prevalent in the urban areas, at a rate of 19.4% in 1993, and were 12.8% in the rural areas for the same time frame. The UNDP Gambia Report speculated that the difference in rural and urban rates could be explained either by the fact that urban women, or because women living on their own without male supervision is a more acceptable option in the urban areas (UNDP 1997,65-66; CSD 1993,67). Among female heads of households, 50.3% were temporary heads (where their husbands migrated, lived in the urban areas or were in polygamous unions in their own households) (CSD 1993, 70). Almost half (44.2% of ever married female head were in polygamous unions (CSD 1993,84), suggesting that these women are hearth-hold heads (Ekejiuba, 1995) rather than family heads.”