Factors Contributing to African Women’ Success in the Diaspora
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.84.10160Keywords:
African, Development, Diaspora, Success, WomenAbstract
Gender plays a vital role in different aspects of development. Much research on women empowerment and economic development has focused on the disparity between male and female, especially the salaries they receive and some focus on women not equally contributing economically to their societies. Scholars agree that women contribute greatly to their family’ economic development. Through a questionnaire involving 20 African women from more than 5 African countries who currently reside in America and England, this study explores factors which contribute to their academic and professional success in the diaspora. Data seems to suggest that family support, modification of gender roles, and faith contribute to the academic and professional success of African women outside of Africa. The study shows the need to transcend cultural norms regarding gender roles to ensure women’ success in their professions wherever they reside, thus enabling them to make a sound contribution to their families’ and communities’ economic development.
References
Acemoglu, D, Johnson, S & Robinson, J, 2001, The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation. American Economic Review, 91(5), 1369-1401.
Addison, H (2015) Feminist Economics, Morrisville (United States): Lulu.com.
Agénor, P-R, Canuto, O & Da Silva, L. (2010). Gender and Growth: The Role of Intergenerational Health Externalities and Women’s Occupational constraints. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5492, the World Bank Group.
Alesina, A, Giuliano, P & Nunn, N. (2011). On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough. Harvard University, Working Paper.
Akyeampong, E. & Hippolyte, F. (2012). “The Contribution of African Women to Economic Growth and Development: Historical Perspectives and Policy Implications Part I: The Pre-Colonial and Colonial Periods.” Policy Research Working Papers (April). doi:10.1596/1813-9450-6051.
Baah-Boateng, W. (2010). Determinants of Occupational Choice of Ghanaian Workers. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1805143
Bertrand, T. (2006). Being women and men in Africa today: Approaching gender roles in changing African societies. New York: NY: Routledge.
Bolich, G. (2007). Conversing on Gender. Psyche’s Press. Raleigh, NC.
Bushati, B., & Galvani, A. (2017). Images of Gender among Western and Eastern perspective: The Case of Bahrain. European Journal of Geography, 8 (3) 126-137.
Calkin, S. (2015). Feminism, Interrupted? Gender and Development in the Age of ‘Smart Economics. Progress in Development Studies 15(4), , pp. 295-307. DOI: 10.1177/1464993415592737
Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Chauhan K. (2014). Gender and Development. In Gender Inequality in the Public Sector in Pakistan. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137426475_2
Chant, S. and Sweetman, C. (2012). Fixing women or fixing the world? ‘Smart economics’, efficiency approaches, and gender equality in development”, Gender & Development, 20 (3), pp 517-529.
Collier, P. (1994). Gender Aspects of Labour Allocation during Structural Adjustment: Theoretical Framework and the Africa Experience. In Horton, S, Kanbur, R & Mazumdar, D, (Eds.) Labour markets in an era of adjustment, Vol. 1, The World Bank.
Cornwall. A., & Rivas, A-M. (2015). From ‘gender equality and ‘women’s empowerment’ to global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development”, Third World Quarterly, 36 (2), pp 396-415.
Cuberes, D., & Teignier, M. (2016). Aggregate Effects of Gender Gaps in the Labor Market: A Quantitative Estimate. Journal of Human Capital, 10(1), 1–32
Docquier, F., Rapoport, H., 2012. Globalization, brain drain, and development. Journal of Economic Literature, 50, 681-730.
Duflo, E. (2012). Women Empowerment and Economic Development. Journal of Economic Literature, 50(4), 1051–1079.
Esteve-Volart, B. (2004). Gender Discrimination and Growth: Theory and evidence from India. DEDPS 42.
Feldman, M., Hadjimichael, T., Lanahan, L., & Kemeny, T. (2016). The logic of economic development: a definition and model for investment. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 34(1), 5-21.
Fofack, H. (2012). A Model of Gender Production in Colonial Africa and Implications for the Post-Colonial Period, Forthcoming World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, the World Bank Group.
Griffin, P. (2009). Gendering the World Bank. Neoliberalism and the Gendered Foundations of Global Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gnimassoun, B. & J.C Anyanwu. (2019), The Diaspora and Economic Development in Africa, Working Paper Series N° 308, African Development Bank, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., Namey, E. E. (2011). Applied thematic analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
International Monetary Fund (2018). Pursuing Women's Economic Empowerment https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2018/05/31/pp053118pursuing-womenseconomic-empowerment
Kabeer, N. (2005). Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal, Gender and Development, 13(1), pp. 13-24.
Maganda, D. (2021). Factors Contributing to African Women’ Success in the Diaspora. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(4). 529-542.
Kardam, N. (1991). Bringing Women in Women’ issues in International Development Programmes. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Kuiper, E., & Barker, D. (2006) (eds). Feminist Economics and the World Bank: History, Theory and Policy. New York: Routledge.
Lange, C. (2008). Men and Women Writing Women: The Female Perspective and Feminism in U.S. Novels and African Novels in French by Male and Female Authors, UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research XI.
McKinsey & Company (2018), Women Matter: Time to accelerate. Ten years of insights into gender diversity. Available at: https://www.empowerwomen.org//media/files/un%20women/empowerwomen/resources/hlp%20briefs/nhlp%20full%20report.pdf?la=en
McNeill,D., & St Clair, A.L. (2011). The World Bank´s expertise: Observant participation in the World Development Report 2006, Equity and Development. In Mosse, D. (Ed.), Adventures in Aidland, the anthropology of professionals in international development (pp. 103-121). New York: Berghahn Books.
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Momsen, J. H. (2004). Gender and development: Routledge perspective on development. New York: NY: Routledge.
Muyoyeta, L. (2004). Women, Gender and Development. Women for Change, Zambia and 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World, Ireland. with support from: Development Cooperation Ireland and Concern. ISBN: 0 95351 367 X
Nijeholt, G. L. A. (1987). The Fallacy of integration: The U.N. Strategy of Integrating Women into Development Revisited. In Netherlands Review of Development Studies 1.
Parpart, J.L. (2000). Theoretical Perspectives on Gender and Development. Ottawa: IDRC
Peet. R, & Hartwick. E. (2015). Theories of Development Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives. New York: The Guilford Publications.
Razavi, S., & Miller, C. (1995). From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse, UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Occasional Paper No. 1. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
Reeves, H. (2000). Gender and development: Concepts and definitions. Brighton:
Roberts, A. and Soederberg, S. (2012). Gender Equality as Smart Economics? A critique of the 2012 World Development Report, Third World Quarterly, 33 (5), pp 949-968.
Rosenblum, K. E, & Travis, T, M. C. (2003). The meaning of difference: American constructions of race, sex, and gender, social class, and sexual orientation. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Stotsky, J, 2006, Gender and Its Relevance to Macroeconomic Policy: A Survey. IMF Working Paper WP/06/233, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC.
Tinker, I. (1990). The making of a field, a field: advocates, practitioners, and scholars. In I. Tinker (Ed). Persisting Inequalities: Women and World Development. Pp. 27-53. New York: Oxford University Press.
The World Bank, (2006) Gender Equality as Smart Economics: A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan (Fiscal years 2007–10): https://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Resources/GAPNov2.pdf
UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, Leave No One Behind: A Call to Action for Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Available at: https://www.empowerwomen.org/-/media/files/un%20women/empowerwomen/resources/hlp%20briefs/unhlp%20full%20report.pdf?la=en Visvanathan, N., Duggan, L., Nisonoff, L., & Wiegersma, N. (2011). The women, gender, and development reader (2nd ed.). New Africa Books.
What is Development. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/introduction-what-isdevelopment-2/
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Dainess M. Maganda
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
