In the last 30 years, the situation of women in Africa has significantly deteriorated.  In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to state that even the decade dedicated to them was a total loss. The elements of African societies committed to the structural adjustment programmes of the international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund  (IMF) and the World Bank, have been reduced to paying the interest on the debt by draining the household finances and involving women even more in the formal labour market. Nevertheless, even when the objectives of growth are achieved - which is very rare - the quality of life for women has in no way improved. Women’s contribution to agriculture, food production, reproduction and increasingly burdensome domestic work is not only overlooked in the GNP but also in the policies of national development.

Historically in traditional African society, women, in practice, have always had to play a fundamental role. Slavery as well as the colonial and capitalist era undermined these structures and introduced a division of labour particularly alienating to them. This has resulted in adverse socio-economic conditions which still cannot overshadow the various ways women maintain or construct their own socio-economic structures such as family and clan solidarity, communalism, money pools, etc. These stand as evidence that, African women, far from being passive victims, continue to struggle in order to overcome these adversities.

  An Alienating Condition

Depending on whether they were hierarchical or egalitarian, traditional African societies were not necessarily based on patriarchy.  Indeed in most cases, women played a significant role. For example, most of the time, African societies entrusted the almost exclusive responsibility for food production and management to the descendants of those who were the first to domesticate plants. Insofar as the merchant rationale was nonexistent, male - female relations were complementary based on the family’s production and consumption for its own needs. The introduction of trading economies upset the balance of subsistence economies by favouring commercial culture which assigned the man as provider for the family.

In the 70s, in step with the intensified development delirium, government harnessed the growth of rural productivity by integrating, among other measures, more and more women into export agriculture. Women ended up accumulating 60 to 80% of agricultural tasks and transformation work. This increase in work came about without any improvement in the living conditions for the majority of women who were confined to heavy labour (fetching water, wood, and caring for children, etc.). For those women who emigrated to the urban areas, they became trapped by the crisis.  Their financial weakness, in an environment where money as the chief means of exchange rules, is exacerbated by the capitalist development models unfavourable to women’s employment since even men are abundantly present as under-employed and cheap labour. At most, women inherited the fallout of western development (school-teacher, nurse, typist, etc.), but they were, in any case, burdened with an even greater amount of paid or unpaid work.

In spite of their being disadvantaged in education and professional training, African women, for the most part resisted being financially dependent on their husbands. They managed this even when the patriarchal structures of society were buttressed by religious and cultural rigidities confining women more and more to the so-called informal sectors.  It is here that they demonstrated an organizational ability which stands against the degrading of their productive capacity. Unfortunately, in the deficient urbanization of African cities, their resourcefulness could take negative turns, with their marginalisation in servile work, prostitution, etc. As for those women who had access to wealth or work, they cannot be considered emancipated unless they refuse to fall into the trappings of materialism and oppose oppressive and degrading practices.

The most alienating situation is certainly that of Southern African women. Indeed, Southern Africa is a unique and exasperating case.  For example, in South Africa, the triple oppression (race, gender and class) is dramatic. The “one woman, one vote” principle which permitted the abolition of apartheid will not necessarily eliminate the fact that the majority of these women will continue to live in the pauperization of the townships and other ex-bantustans.