Keeping it clean: women, living spaces and health in urban Mali

How do urban women manage their health in their day-to-day lives? Can the organisation of living space lead to poor health? What health challenges are presented by communal living? These questions are explored in research from University Laval, Quebec, into health practices in a squatter commune in Mali.

Research on health and the urban environment tends to focus on infrastructure issues, such as the presence of clinics or standpipes. Relatively little attention has been paid to people’s daily living conditions, especially women’s experiences. Few studies have focused on urban women’s strategies for organising work and activities. But insights into these practices can help provide some understanding of how urban women conceive of health and well-being.

This research, focused on a squatter community in Bamako, Mali, aimed to fill that gap by looking at how women try to keep themselves and their families healthy in an urban environment. In this urban area, families live in compounds, with communal areas shared by a number of families. This arrangement presents particular challenges for women in their health-promoting practices. People in the commune see cleanliness as the most important factor in health. Women are responsible for keeping food and homes clean, but they aren’t always able to live up to their own standards.

The research highlights a number of attitudes and practices around health:

• Men tend to make the most important decisions about building and organising the compound, such as whether or not to install a well. These decisions often don’t reflect women’s priorities.
• Women are expected to keep the compound clean, while men are responsible for constructing and repairing buildings.
• Overall, people felt that the most important factor in staying healthy was cleanliness, especially concerning food. Cleanliness of food and water is seen as women’s responsibility.
• Women are aware of the need to drink clean water, but sometimes find it difficult to access.
• Women take a variety of precautions to make sure that food is clean, such as washing grains, rinsing utensils and covering pots and bowls. This is not always enough, though, as the women tend to cook outdoors where food is exposed to dirt.
• Day-to-day management of the waste created within the compound is considered women’s business. Though aware of health risks, they tend to unload garbage anywhere, as long as it is outside the compound.

Policy relevant implications of these findings include:

• Cleanliness of food, the body and communal spaces was the main rule of health in the study.
• Women have the main responsibility of putting the principles of cleanliness and hygiene into practice in the daily maintenance of the compound, yet they do not have complete decision power regarding management issues.
• Notions of cleanliness did not always coincide with basic rules of hygiene. Cleanliness is culturally defined and women’s practices did not always ensure health for their family.
• People’s daily domestic practices and decision-making power need to be taken into account when outlining health programmes.

Source(s):
‘Environment, living spaces and health: compound organisation practices in a Bamako squatter settlement, Mali,’ in Gender, Development and Health, Oxfam Focus on Gender Series, C. Sweetman (ed), by P. Simard and M. De Koninck 2001 Full document.

Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

id21 Research Highlight: 25 November 2002

Further Information:
Maria De Koninck
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Université Laval
Québec G1K7P4
Canada

Tel: +418 656 2131 ext. 7208
Fax: +418 656 7759
Contact the contributor: maria.dekoninck@msp.ulaval.ca

Contact the contributor: paule_simard@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Université Laval, Canada

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