Women in Uganda

Last updated
Women in Uganda
Uganda - Ruwenzori Mountain Lady.jpg
Young woman in the Ruwenzori Range, Uganda
General Statistics
Maternal mortality  (per 100,000)310 (2010)
Women in parliament 35.0% (2012)
Women over 25 with secondary education 23.0% (2010)
Women in labour force76.0% (2011)
Gender Inequality Index [1]
Value0.530 (2021)
Rank131st out of 191
Global Gender Gap Index [2]
Value0.717 (2021)
Rank66th out of 156

Women in Uganda have substantial economic and social responsibilities throughout Uganda's many traditional societies. Ugandan women come from a range of economic and educational backgrounds. Despite economic and social progress throughout the country, domestic violence and sexual assault remain prevalent issues in Uganda. Illiteracy is directly correlated to increased level of domestic violence. This is mainly because household members can not make proper decisions that directly affect their future plans. Government reports suggest rising levels of domestic violence toward women that are directly attributable to poverty. [3]

Contents

Social dynamics

Today gender roles in Uganda are influenced by tradition as well as constantly changing social dynamics. Traditional roles of women in Uganda are similar to traditional roles of women around the world. These roles are largely domestic including housekeeping, child rearing, fetching water, cooking, and tending to community needs.

In the 1980s, some women in rural areas of Buganda were expected to kneel when speaking to a man. At the same time, however, women shouldered the primary responsibilities for childcare and subsistence cultivation, and in the twentieth century, women had made substantial contributions to cash-crop agriculture. [4]

While it has traditionally been the role of men to control familial financial matters, women provide substantial economic contributions to their families and to the larger Ugandan economy. Many women report they continue to struggle to find employment opportunities and some leave their communities to find greater employment opportunities elsewhere. Traditional gender roles that have been largely revitalized by US evangelical influence, assert the role of women as based in domestic responsibilities. Therefore, female employment continues to be stigmatized within Ugandan culture. However, there have been greater initiatives to generate women's employment around the country. [3]

In many respects, Ugandan women hold and have held rights that exceeded those of women in Western societies. Many Ugandans recognize women as important religious and community leaders. Women have held rights to own land, influence crucial political decisions made by men, and cultivate crops for their own profit. When cash-crop agriculture became lucrative, as in southeastern Uganda in the 1920s, men often claimed rights to land owned by their female relatives, and their claims were supported by local councils and protectorate courts. [4]

Polygamy

Polygynous marriage practices, which permit a man to marry more than one woman, have reinforced some aspects of male dominance. However, they also have given women an arena for cooperating to oppose male dominance. [4]

In Uganda, a man sometimes grants "male status" to his senior wife, allowing her to behave as an equal toward men and as a superior toward his other wives. In the twentieth century, polygynous marriages represented social bonds that were not legally recognized as marriage, leaving women without legal rights to inheritance or maintenance in the event of divorce or widowhood. [4]

Gender equality

As with many other countries, Uganda faces multiple obstacles in its movement toward gender equality. After gender equality and women empowerment was listed as one of the UN Millennium Development Goals of 2000, the Ugandan Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) responded in their Gender and Access to Justice (2001) annual report addressing various obstacles in accessing justice. [5] In 2012, the JLOS reported that because of patriarchy and the lack of gender equality, the majority of the poor are women; many of which are ignorant of or deprived of certain rights like owning land. [6]

Gender-based violence has been reported as another issue. According to authorities within the Ugandan Police Force, many Ugandans accept the battering of women as a long-standing social norm. [7] In 2001, a survey revealed that 90% of women reported that “beating a wife or female partner was justifiable in some circumstances.” [8] A 2018 Reuters article highlighted the concern over gender based violence in covering a story involving 20 corpses of young women along the roadsides south of the Kampala. [7] In addition to the lack of justice and protection against violence, there is a significant gender gap with education.

Women are under-represented in Ugandan financial services: women control around 39 percent of Ugandan firms, yet they receive just 9 percent of commercial loans. They are 40% less likely to hold a bank account than males. In addition, just 25% of women utilise mobile money. [9] [10]

Uganda's National Financial Inclusion Strategy seeks to address this, with the Uganda Development Bank (UDBL) leading the way. The European Investment Bank provided them with a €15 million loan line as part of the East Africa SME-focused Regional Facility and the organisation's SheInvest for Africa project. [9] [11] [12]

Uganda's National Financial Inclusion Strategy is now focusing especially on female-led private enterprise through a new project dubbed the 2X Challenge. The 2X Challenge is a pledge by development finance institutions to invest $3 billion in women's economic empowerment by the end of 2020. The project's purpose is to promote women as entrepreneurs, business leaders, and workers. [9] [13]

Agriculture and agribusiness have the most women-led firms in Uganda Development Bank's portfolio. [9] [14]

The gender gap and education

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap 2017 Report, Uganda is ranked 45 out of 144 countries on the basis of its four key indicators: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. Under the country score card section of this report, it revealed that Uganda ranked #1 in primary education enrollment and yet only #127 in secondary education. [15] This means that for the majority of girls in Uganda, their schooling is halted before or soon after becoming a teenager. The cultural practice of parents relying heavier on girls more than boys for household labor needs may be a main cause for this disparity in education. [16]

A 2013 study done by Martina Björkman-Nyqvist indicated a sharp drop in school enrollment for females when their households faced financial setbacks from a lack of rain/crop production or other economic shortfalls. [17] And in the districts where schooling was free, it showed a significant drop in the marks earned by female students during the times of economic hardship. Meanwhile, the study showed that boys remained unscathed in either scenario. [17] Whether it is economic shocks, early unwanted pregnancies or fleeing family violence, many girls have to stop their education prematurely.  As a result, these young women face reduced opportunities for work and a significant amount of them are driven into unhealthy sexual relationships or find themselves doing sex work in Kampala to survive and support their families. [18] [19]

Interventions for gender equality

Actions taken to bridge these gender gaps and bring justice have served as a catalyst for development, empowering Ugandan woman to lay hold of various rights, positions and opportunities. In Kasese District, Western Uganda, the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) provides training in the production and trade of the nation's staples: coffee, maize and fruit. Through initiatives like this, women are positioned to access needed healthcare and education, thus helping them escape the poverty trap. Research findings also indicate a decline in gender-based violence as women become key contributors in bolstering local economies. [20]

An IMF 2016 survey found its gender budgeting very successful in Sub-Sahara countries like Uganda and Rwanda. When targeted funds provide clean water and electricity is accessible, the reduction of daily household chores makes it more feasible to earn the monies needed for a girl's education. [21] Through education and couple counseling programs within The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), women learn assertiveness skills that help them better navigate relational choices and safe sex practices. [22] Clubs such as the Empowerment of Livelihood and Adolescents (ELA) have the goal of helping girls evade teen pregnancy and underage marriage. [23]

Resistance to changing norms

The changing of age old social norms have been met with some resistance and negative repercussion. After public campaigns promoting women's rights, Uganda has been one of the countries noted by the World Health Organization to experience backlash resulting in violence. [24] In a four-year study in Rakai, Uganda noted widespread uneasiness among both women and men as equality initiatives challenged the concept of a women's place in the home and society in general. With women gaining more financial autonomy and power in the home, many reported a concern that this challenge to traditional gender roles may cause men to feel threatened and respond with domestic violence. The Rakai study stressed the importance of having community initiatives in place that can broaden cultural understandings in recognizing that there are many benefits as women empowerment and equality is embraced. [25] [26]

History

Women began to organize to exercise their political power before independence. In 1960 the Uganda Council of Women led by Edith Mary Bataringaya passed a resolution urging that laws regarding marriage, divorce, and inheritance should be recorded in written form and publicized nationwide—a first step toward codifying customary and modern practices. During the first decade of independence, this council also pressed for legal reforms that would grant all women the right to own property and retain custody of their children if their marriages ended. [4]

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the violence that swept Uganda inflicted a particularly heavy toll on women. Economic hardships were felt first in the home, where women and children lacked economic choices available to most men. Women's work became more time-consuming than it had been; the erosion of public services and infrastructure reduced access to schools, hospitals, and markets. Even traveling to nearby towns was often impossible. Some Ugandan women believed that the war years strengthened their independence, however, as the disruption of normal family life opened new avenues for acquiring economic independence, and government reports suggested that the number of women employed in commerce increased in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [4]

The Museveni government of the late 1980s pledged to eliminate discrimination against women in official policy and practice. Women are active in the National Resistance Army (NRA), and Museveni appointed a woman, Joan Kakwenzire, to a six-member commission to document abuses by the military. The government also has decreed that one woman would represent each district on the National Resistance Council. In addition, the government-operated Uganda Commercial Bank has launched a rural credit plan to make farm loans more easily available to women. [4]

Museveni appointed Joyce Mpanga minister for women and development in 1987, and she proclaimed the government's intention to raise women's wages, increase women's credit and employment opportunities, and improve the lives of women in general. In 1989 there were two women serving as ministers and three serving as deputy ministers in the NRM cabinet. Women civil servants and professionals also formed an organization, Action for Development, to assist women in war-torn areas, especially the devastated Luwero region in central Uganda. [4]

The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers, which was founded in 1976, established a legal-aid clinic in early 1988 to defend women who faced the loss of property or children because of divorce, separation, or widowhood. The association also sought to expand educational opportunities for women, increase child support payments (equivalent to US$0.50 per month in 1989) in case of divorce, establish common legal grounds for divorce for both men and women, establish common criminal codes for men and women, assist women and children who were victims of AIDS, and implement nationwide education programs to inform women of their legal rights. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important intersection of property and contract law. Encumbrance on the land rights of one, such as an easement, may constitute the land rights of another. Mineral rights and water rights are closely linked, and often interrelated concepts.

Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Commission on the Status of Women</span>

National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) is a Pakistani statutory body established by the President Pervez Musharraf, under the XXVI Ordinance dated 17 July 2000. It is an outcome of the national and international commitments of the Government of Pakistan like Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995; and 1998 National Plan of Action (NPA) for Women, 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Bangladesh</span> Status of women in Bangladesh

The status of women in Bangladesh has been subject to many important changes over the past few centuries. Bangladeshi women have made significant progress since the country's independence in 1971, where women in the region experienced increased political empowerment for women, better job prospects, increased opportunities of education and the adoption of new laws to protect their rights through Bangladesh's policies in the last four decades. Still, women in Bangladesh continue to struggle to achieve equal status to men due to societal norms that enforce restrictive gender roles as well as poor implementation of laws that were set to protect women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Jordan</span> Overview of the status of women in Jordan

The political, social, and economic status of women in Jordan has varied based on the legal, traditional, cultural and religious values at the time. Women's rights and experiences in Jordan also depended on other factors, such as class, place of origin, religion, and other factors. These influences also vary by region, with the Bedouins, Druze, and Chechen peoples each having their own distinct cultural practices. In recent years, there have been significant changes in women's participation in politics, as well as increased involvement in the arts and sports. However, according to the 2020 World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index, which measures economic behavior, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, Jordan ranks 138 out of 153 nations in terms of gender equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Kazakhstan</span> Overview of the status of women in Kazakhstan

Women in Kazakhstan are women who live in or are from Kazakhstan. Their position in society has been and is influenced by a variety of factors, including local traditions and customs, decades of Soviet regime, rapid social and economic changes and instability after independence, and new emerging Western values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Nepal</span> Overview of the status of women in Nepal

The status of women in Nepal has varied throughout history. In the early 1990s, like in some other Asian countries, women in Nepal were generally subordinate to men in virtually every aspect of life. Historically, Nepal has been a predominantly patriarchal society where women are generally subordinate to men. Men were considered to be the leader of the family and superior to women. Also, social norms and values were biased in favor of men. This strong bias in favor of sons in society meant that daughters were discriminated against from birth and did not have equal opportunities to achieve all aspects of development. Daughters were deprived of many privileges, including rights, education, healthcare, parental property rights, social status, last rites of dead parents, and were thought to be other's property and liabilities. In the past century, there has been a dramatic positive change in the role and status of women in Nepal, reducing gender inequality. While the 1990 Constitution guaranteed fundamental rights to all citizens without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, caste, religion, or sex, the modernization of society, along with increased education of the general population, have also played an important role in promoting gender equality. The roles of women have changed in various ways in the modern Nepalese society.

Gender inequality in India refers to health, education, economic and political inequalities between men and women in India. Various international gender inequality indices rank India differently on each of these factors, as well as on a composite basis, and these indices are controversial.

Gender and development is an interdisciplinary field of research and applied study that implements a feminist approach to understanding and addressing the disparate impact that economic development and globalization have on people based upon their location, gender, class background, and other socio-political identities. A strictly economic approach to development views a country's development in quantitative terms such as job creation, inflation control, and high employment – all of which aim to improve the ‘economic wellbeing’ of a country and the subsequent quality of life for its people. In terms of economic development, quality of life is defined as access to necessary rights and resources including but not limited to quality education, medical facilities, affordable housing, clean environments, and low crime rate. Gender and development considers many of these same factors; however, gender and development emphasizes efforts towards understanding how multifaceted these issues are in the entangled context of culture, government, and globalization. Accounting for this need, gender and development implements ethnographic research, research that studies a specific culture or group of people by physically immersing the researcher into the environment and daily routine of those being studied, in order to comprehensively understand how development policy and practices affect the everyday life of targeted groups or areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender and food security</span>

Gender inequality both leads to and is a result of food insecurity. According to estimates, women and girls make up 60% of the world's chronically hungry and little progress has been made in ensuring the equal right to food for women enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Women face discrimination both in education and employment opportunities and within the household, where their bargaining power is lower. On the other hand, gender equality is described as instrumental to ending malnutrition and hunger. Women tend to be responsible for food preparation and childcare within the family and are more likely to be spent their income on food and their children's needs. The gendered aspects of food security are visible along the four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender inequality in Honduras</span>

Gender inequality in Honduras has seen improvements in some areas regarding gender inequality, while others have regressed towards further inequality since in 1980s. Comparing numbers from the 2011 and 2019 United Nations Human Development Reports helps to understand how gender inequality has been trending in Honduras. In the 2011 Human Development Report rankings for the Gender Inequality Index, Honduras ranked 121st out of 187 countries. In the 2019 Human Development Report Honduras dropped to 132nd out of 189 countries in the rankings. As the country's overall ranking dropped, it indicates that progress towards gender equality is not being made on the same level as other countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Africa</span> Overview of the status of women in Africa

The culture, evolution, and history of women who were born in, live in, and are from the continent of Africa reflect the evolution and history of the African continent itself.

The socioeconomic impact of female education constitutes a significant area of research within international development. Increases in the amount of female education in regions tends to correlate with high levels of development. Some of the effects are related to economic development. Women's education increases the income of women and leads to growth in GDP. Other effects are related to social development. Educating girls leads to a number of social benefits, including many related to women's empowerment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's political participation in India</span>

The term 'political participation' has a very wide meaning. It is not only related to 'Right to Vote', but simultaneously relates to participation in: decision-making process, political activism, political consciousness, etc. Women in India participate in voting, run for public offices and political parties at lower levels more than men. Political activism and voting are the strongest areas of women's political participation. To combat gender inequality in politics, the Indian Government has instituted reservations for seats in local governments.

Gender inequality has been improving a lot in Bangladesh, inequalities in areas such as education and employment remain ongoing problems so women have little political freedom. In 2015, Bangladesh was ranked 139 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index and 47 out 144 countries surveyed on the Gender Inequality Index in 2017. Many of the inequalities are result of extreme poverty and traditional gender norms centred on a patrilineal and patriarchal kinship system in rural areas.

Measures of gender equality or inequality are statistical tools employed to quantify the concept of gender equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's empowerment</span> Giving rights, freedom to make decisions and strengthening women to stand on their own

Women's empowerment may be defined in several ways, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training. Women's empowerment equips and allows women to make life-determining decisions through the different societal problems. They may have the opportunity to re-define gender roles or other such roles, which allow them more freedom to pursue desired goals.

As of 2018, the African country Rwanda ranks in the top five countries for gender equality according to the Global Gender Gap Report. The idea of fairness that dominates this country arose after the genocide against the Tutsi that occurred in 1994. The government is committed to ensuring equal rights for women and men without prejudice to the principles of gender equality and complementarity in national development. These ideas are exhibited through the roles of Rwanda women in government, the respect for women's education and the role of women in Rwanda healthcare. The country also took an active stance against rape in genocide, created a national action plan after United Nations Resolution 1325, and is pushing towards ending gender-based violence.

Foreign aid for gender equality in Jordan includes programs funded by governments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that aim to empower women, close gender based gaps in opportunity and experience, and promote equal access to education, economic empowerment, and political representation in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable Development Goal 5</span> Global goal to achieve gender equality by 2030

Sustainable Development Goal 5 concerns gender equality and is fifth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by United Nations in 2015. The 17 SDGs recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

References

  1. ↑ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. ↑ "Global Gender Gap Report 2021" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment Process Mubende District Report" (PDF). January 2002.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Uganda country study. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (December 1990). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ↑ "Millennium Development Goals". UNDP. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  6. ↑ "Gender Statistics Profile" (PDF). Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Justice, Law and Order Section: 8, 9. November 2012.
  7. 1 2 Lewton, Thomas. "Male feminists inside Uganda's police strike out at killing of women". U.S. Retrieved 2018-10-04.
  8. ↑ "Why the new global wealth of educated women spurs backlash". PBS NewsHour. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-04.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "The woman running a pillow factory in Uganda gets a financial cushion". European Investment Bank. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  10. ↑ Mugabi, Enock. "Women's Entrepreneurship Development in Uganda" (PDF).
  11. ↑ "Uganda launches National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2017 – 2022". Uganda launches National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2017 – 2022. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  12. ↑ "Our new strategy – Uganda Development Bank" . Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  13. ↑ "2X Challenge". 2X Challenge. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  14. ↑ "New ODI study shows how gender norms are holding back agriculture in Uganda". odi.org. 19 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  15. ↑ "Data Explorer". Global Gender Gap Report 2017. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  16. ↑ "Culture of Uganda - history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, family, social, dress". www.everyculture.com. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
  17. 1 2 Björkman-Nyqvist, Martina (July 30, 2013). "Income shocks and gender gaps in education: Evidence from Uganda". Journal of Development Economics. 105: 237–253. doi: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.07.013 .
  18. ↑ Mbonye, Martin; Nalukenge, Winifred; Nakamanya, Sarah; Nalusiba, Betty; King, Rachel; Vandepitte, Judith; Seeley, Janet (2012-06-14). "Gender inequity in the lives of women involved in sex work in Kampala, Uganda". Journal of the International AIDS Society. 15 (3(Suppl 1)): 1–9. doi:10.7448/ias.15.3.17365. ISSN   1758-2652. PMC   3499847 . PMID   22713353.
  19. ↑ "Sex work in Uganda: Risky business - Scope". Scope. 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
  20. ↑ Mayoux, Linda (December 2012). "Gender mainstreaming in value chain development: experience with gender action learning system in Uganda". Enterprise Development and Microfinance. 23 (4): 319–337. doi:10.3362/1755-1986.2012.031. S2CID   154628962.
  21. ↑ Stotsky, Janet G. (July 2016). "Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts" (PDF). IMF Working Paper. WP/16/152: 15–16.
  22. ↑ Muriisa, Roberts Kabeba (January 2010). "The Role of NGOs in Addressing Gender Inequality and HIV/AIDS in Uganda". Canadian Journal of African Studies. 44 (3): 605–623.
  23. ↑ "UNFPA Uganda | Better Life for Girls, Better Future for Uganda". uganda.unfpa.org. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  24. ↑ "Why the new global wealth of educated women spurs backlash". PBS NewsHour. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  25. ↑ Mullinax, Margo; Higgins, Jenny; Wagman, Jennifer; Nakyanjo, Neema; Kigozi, Godfrey; Serwadda, David; Wawer, Maria; Gray, Ronald; Nalugoda, Fred (April 2013). "Community understandings of and responses to gender equality and empowerment in Rakai, Uganda". Global Public Health. 8 (4): 465–478. doi:10.1080/17441692.2013.768686. PMID   23463914. S2CID   205911343.
  26. ↑ "GENDER AND SOCIAL INCLUSION ANALYSIS: UGANDA" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.