Special Issue Concept Note

The special issue

We are proposing a special issue addressing the theme: “Women in African Economies: Documenting African Women Realities” with the broad focus on the contribution of women to the economy of Africa. The proposed issue will bring together a collection of papers presented at the Gender Studies conference – ICGSA. The purpose of the issue is to explore the how women are making a difference in the economies across the African continent. African women constitute a powerful economic force that is essential for addressing the development challenges experienced in Africa. The comprise the majority of workers in the informal economy, and about a third of women participate in the formal economy. However, their contribution remains invisible in most of the economic analyses.  Drawing on the presentations made at the recent ICGSA, the special issue will provide an opportunity to share knowledge about the role of women in African economies. The publication seeks to explore critical issues relating to women’s participation in the formal and informal economy – focusing on labor migration, sustainable agricultural development (livestock and crop farming), food security, digital finances and use of ICTs to access markets, access to micro-credit and women’s collectives/savings groups, access to decent work, micro and medium-term enterprises, the care economy amplifying the issue of unpaid care work among others. 

The proposed special issue is informed by two motivations: i) to address the representation of African women and to move beyond stereotypes. This specifically points to the need to go beyond women as eternal victims, taking the orientation of African women as social agents in the African economy. Whereas it is an undeniable fact that women have been historically disadvantaged, relative to men, looking at them as eternal victims creates a discourse of lamentations which has tended to dominate the knowledge created about the African woman.  The discourse of lamentations is without doubt informed by the undeniable fact that Africa is a continent in crisis. Widespread poverty, war and displacement, global marginalization all make Africa a continent struggling with the problem of development.  This problem of development then translates into developmentalism especially in gender studies. This special issue is part of the overall effort to build resources for bottom-up agency (women and/ or men) in economic development field, ii) to move beyond generalizations to bring out concrete realities related to women’s contribution to the economy, their struggles and resilience. We acknowledge that whereas women contributions to economic development is in a continuous flux, scholarship in the field has not kept with the pace. In Uganda, especially, scholarship in gender studies has tended to lag behind the changes thereby limiting sensibilities as well as innovations in gender development practice. We aim to have a strong feminist focus and bring out new insights both at the practical and theoretical levels. 

The special issue is intended to add to the much needed locally generated knowledge on gender Studies. The locally generated knowledge has additional value of motivating students to appreciate the core values of the discipline. The special issue will be significant contributions to the teaching and learning resources of the School of Women and Gender Studies and other gender studies units on the African continent.