IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v48y2012i1p41-54.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conjugality as Social Change: A Zimbabwean Case

Author

Listed:
  • Cecile Jackson

Abstract

Understanding intrahousehold relations between spouses is central to understanding gendered wellbeing in developing countries, and therefore has engaged the attentions of economists, anthropologists, political theorists and interdisciplinary development studies. In all these fields contractualism in conceptualising conjugality and intrahousehold relations is ubiquitous, yet it implies an overly static and compelling structuralist logic, which this article questions. A better understanding of agency and change, in relation to marriage, matters for both the conceptualisation of intrahousehold relations, and for a range of policy initiatives, for example gender equity, or indeed HIV/AIDS, where the ability of women to instigate change in conjugality and sexual cultures is significant. This article makes no claim to represent contemporary Shona gender relations in Zimbabwe, but offers a temporal analysis of changing conjugality in south-central Zimbabwe from the colonial period into the late 1980s 1 to critique the theoretical stance of contractual approaches, through revealing the ways in which marriage has been reformulated through women's agency.

Suggested Citation

  • Cecile Jackson, 2012. "Conjugality as Social Change: A Zimbabwean Case," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 41-54, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:48:y:2012:i:1:p:41-54
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2011.629649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2011.629649
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2011.629649?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amartya Sen, 1987. "Gender and Cooperative Conflicts," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1987-018, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 2019. "Gender and generational patterns of African deagrarianization: Evolving labour and land allocation in smallholder peasant household farming, 1980–2015," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 60-72.
    2. Karin Steen & Alice Antoniou & Lehnke Lindemann & Anne Jerneck, 2024. "Meanings and implications of love: review of the scholarship of love with a sub-Saharan focus," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lone Badstue & Patti Petesch & Cathy Rozel Farnworth & Lara Roeven & Mahlet Hailemariam, 2020. "Women Farmers and Agricultural Innovation: Marital Status and Normative Expectations in Rural Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-22, November.
    2. Karin Astrid Siegmann & Hadia Majid, 2021. "Empowering Growth in Pakistan?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(2), pages 309-331, June.
    3. Sarker, Debnarayan & Das, Nimai, 2001. "Women’s Participation in Forestry: Some Theoretical and Empirical Issues," MPRA Paper 14804, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Yuyan Zhang, 1989. "Economic System Reform in China," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1989-055, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Fofack, Hippolyte, 2013. "A model of gendered production in colonial Africa and implications for development in the post-colonial period," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6438, The World Bank.
    6. Susana Martínez-Restrepo & Laura Ramos-Jaimes & Alma Espino & Martin Valdivia & Johanna Yancari Cueva, 2017. "Measuring women’s economic empowerment: Critical lessons from South America," INFORMES DE INVESTIGACIÓN 015825, FEDESARROLLO.
    7. Dorian R. Woods & Yvonne Benschop & Marieke van den Brink, 2022. "What is intersectional equality? A definition and goal of equality for organizations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 92-109, January.
    8. Srinivas Goli & Nagendra Kumar Maurya & Moradhvaj & Prem Bhandari, 2019. "Regional Differentials in Multidimensional Poverty in Nepal: Rethinking Dimensions and Method of Computation," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, March.
    9. Sarah Gammage & Naila Kabeer & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2016. "Voice and Agency: Where Are We Now?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 1-29, January.
    10. Nitya Rao, 1996. "Empowerment through Organisation," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 171-197, September.
    11. Fernandez, Antonia & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2017. "Shared agency: The dominant spouse’s impact on education expenditure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 182-197.
    12. Gulati, Kajal & Ward, Patrick & Lybbert, Travis & Spielman, David, 2016. "Intrahousehold valuation, preference heterogeneity, and demand of an agricultural technology in Bihar, India," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236280, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Mang-Benza, Carelle & Jodoin, Laurent & Onibon Doubogan, Yvette & Gaye, Ibrahima & Kola, Edinam, 2023. "Making energy justice work for women in rural sub-Saharan Africa: A qualitative diagnostic from Benin, Senegal, and Togo," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    14. Tilman Bruck & Kati Schindler, 2009. "The Impact of Violent Conflicts on Households: What Do We Know and What Should We Know about War Widows?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 289-309.
    15. Derseh Endale, 1993. "The Ethiopian Famines, Entitlements and Governance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1993-102, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Vasudevan, Ramaa & Pena, Anita Alves & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Does reliable electrification reduce gender differences? Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 580-601.
    17. Harris-Fry, Helen & Saville, Naomi M. & Paudel, Puskar & Manandhar, Dharma S. & Cortina-Borja, Mario & Skordis, Jolene, 2022. "Relative power: Explaining the effects of food and cash transfers on allocative behaviour in rural Nepalese households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    18. Praveena Kodoth, 2001. "Gender, Family and Property Rights," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 8(2), pages 291-306, September.
    19. Bernard, Tanguy & Doss, Cheryl & Hidrobo, Melissa & Hoel, Jessica & Kieran, Caitlin, 2020. "Ask me why: Patterns of intrahousehold decision-making," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    20. Radatz, Laura & Baten, Joerg, 2023. "Measuring Multidimensional Inequality and Conflict in Africa and in a Global Comparison," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277637, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:48:y:2012:i:1:p:41-54. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.