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Women's empowerment in cotton growing: A case in Northern Benin

Author

Listed:
  • Faridath Atchabi Aboudou

    (LARES - Laboratoire d'analyse régionale et d'expertise sociale)

  • Michel Fok

    (UPR AIDA - Agroécologie et intensification durables des cultures annuelles - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement)

Abstract

This article addresses the economic and social impacts for women growing cotton through the interrelated dimensions of resource, agency and achievements in women's empowerment. Women's growing cotton is explained by analyzing their characteristics and those of their husbands and of the other women, in the perspective of intra household negotiations and in the specific context and recent history of cotton production. Our study found a noticeable share of 20 percent of farms where women and their husbands simultaneously earned cotton income and where women spent less time in the fields while enjoying better decision-making power. This new status of income generation and role sharing within households is a win-win situation, benefitting from a change in social norms which required an extra-household chock, a period of cotton sector uncertainty in an exacerbated monetization context. As monetization keeps on prevailing in all African countries, it should favor further women's empowerment.

Suggested Citation

  • Faridath Atchabi Aboudou & Michel Fok, 2019. "Women's empowerment in cotton growing: A case in Northern Benin," Post-Print hal-05174292, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05174292
    DOI: 10.19268/JGAFS.412019.2
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05174292v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Forsythe, Lora & Posthummus, Helena & Martin, Adrienne, 2016. "A crop of one's own? Women’s experiences of cassava commercialization in Nigeria and Malawi," Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security (Agri-Gender), Africa Centre for Gender, Social Research and Impact Assessment, vol. 1(02).
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