AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Invisible Hands: Women in Zimbabwe's Commercial Farm Sector |
| Author: | Amanor-Wilks, Dede |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | SAFERE: Southern African Feminist Review (ISSN 1024-9451) |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | June |
| Pages: | 37-57 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Zimbabwe Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | work environment women agricultural workers agriculture Development and Technology economics Labor and Employment Sex Roles sociology Women employees Commercial farming Vulnerable groups Social behaviour |
| Abstract: | The most invisible women in Zimbabwe today are the women working in commercial farming areas. They are invisible in politics, in economic calculations, in national census information, and in social structures. Women are employed on commercial farms because they are a source of cheap labour and because of their stabilizing effect on male labour. After a short history of women in farm employment, this article pays attention to one of the main consequences for these women of their marginal position on commercial farms: the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Many women, notably the most vulnerable among them, single unmarried and divorced women and widows, often have no option but to trade sex for food. Policies to improve the conditions of farm workers after independence have had limited impact on the lives of women. A starting point for ameliorating the status of women workers would be to improve the wages and working conditions of nonpermanent workers, since nearly half of all seasonal workers and an even higher proportion of contract workers are women. Bibliogr. |