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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Missing Men? The Debate over Rural Poverty and Women-Headed Households in Southern Africa
Author:O'Laughlin, BridgetISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:The Journal of Peasant Studies
Volume:25
Issue:2
Period:January
Pages:1-48
Language:English
Geographic terms:Southern Africa
Botswana
Subjects:rural poverty
female-headed households
Women's Issues
Economics and Trade
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Labor and Employment
economics
Cultural Roles
migration
Family Life
Sex Roles
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066159808438665
Abstract:Migrant labour in southern Africa has been historically associated with rural poverty and a high incidence of women-headed households. Poverty alleviation approaches to social policy ask whether in this context rural women-headed households are poorer than those headed by men. Ample research from the region shows that the answer is no, not always, a fact once more confirmed here in an analysis of the Botswana case. This case suggests, however, that the wrong question is being asked. The incidence of both women-headed households and rural poverty has increased with the polarization of agrarian production and the exclusionary restructuring of the migrant labour system. The question is not whom social welfare programmes should target but what should be done when capital no longer needs the labour that it has pulled from rural households over so many generations. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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