Colonial policy, male opposition, and the integration of Swazi women into wage employment, 1935-1955

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Periodical article

Title:	Colonial policy, male opposition, and the integration of Swazi women into wage employment, 1935-1955
Author:	Simelane, Hamilton Sipho
Year:	2011
Periodical:	African Historical Review (ISSN 1753-2531)
Volume:	43
Issue:	1
Pages:	48-72
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Swaziland - Eswatini Great Britain
Subjects:	women's employment colonial policy labour history
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17532523.2011.596620
Abstract:	Colonialism entailed numerous changes in Swazi socioeconomic configurations, including a growing recourse to waged employment. Yet little is known about the dynamics that drove indigenous Swazi women to work for wages. This article argues that colonial policy, by adversely impacting areas of production involving Swazi people, drove women to seek wage employment. Moreover, this was not a smooth process, but a contested issue. Swazi men, chiefs, the monarchy and colonial administrators all attempted to frustrate female participation in wage employment. In spite of such barriers, as oral interviews with mid-twentieth-century working women show, women continued to take up wage employment, and eventually secured the implicit support of colonial administrators in the service of the Swaziland colonial economy. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]