“A woman should not be the boss when a man is present”: gender and poverty in southern Mozambique

This study examines the variations and complexity of gender relations in southern Mozambique. It notes that the region recently witnessed profound processes of socio-economic change, including an extensive male labour migration and a “feminisation” of agriculture.

The study figures that an important implication of these developments is the very large proportion of female-headed households, as well as the near gender equality in education enrolment. The paper also finds that the proportion of women in political office is relatively high in the region at the lower levels of village communities, but men still dominate in higher public offices.

Socially speaking, traditional marriage has largely been replaced by an individualisation of domestic responsibilities and cohabitation. Moreover, there are signs of increasing decision-making power of women within male-headed households. Nonetheless, women are hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The authors recommend the following:

• effort should be made to (s)elect women in/to leading positions, and women’s important role as community leaders should be better recognised and supported
• women still have a central role in small-scale agriculture, but are still excluded from being involved in larger agricultural entities primarily due to the land distribution system; this should be looked into
• more effort should be made to promote women's involvement in the formal economy
• renewed efforts should be made to better understand the feminisation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in order to come up with new and more gender-sensitive anti-AIDS policies
• domestic violence remains a serious problem as the traditional relations between men and women change, and interventions should focus on men and their reasons for being violent
• people should be encouraged to discuss gender relations and sexuality more openly in families, through various types of awareness campaigns.