The changing and contemporary role of women in African development

Abstract

A society which is seriously committed to raising levels of living needs to consider women not as marginal to the development process but as essential human resources for generating balanced development. the pragmatic approach to development dictates that all available human resources must be mobilized to reach the goal. Africa is at war against the cruelties of nature and the inequalities of the global situation, and all of her people must be called upon to fight. The humanistic approach to development is expressed in the development: “Development of People toward their greater freedom and well-being” not half of the people, but all of them; all must participates in the tasks of nation building and share in its fruits. The pragmatic and the humanistic approaches lead to the same conclusion: the necessary participation of women in development. But such a generalization is not enough. Just as development itself is measured by various economic and social yardsticks, the participation of women can be measured although it seldom is. This article looks at the division of economic labour by sex in traditional sectors of the society, and attempts to contrast it with that in modernizing and modernized sectors, to discover whether women are sharing in the specialization of roles.