Easing rural womens' working day in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines the interface between work conditions of rural women in Africa and Western perceptions and interventions to address them. From a schematic review of Western attitudes towards African rural women's work, the paper moves on to consider donor intervention directed at improving rural women's status. The central question posed is how external donor agenciescan extend beyond localized project efforts to provide the material foundation for facilitating widespread change in women's working day of a self-determing nature. A 'homestead economics' approach is suggested as a catalyst for change . In this programme, women's labour constraints rather than income generation is given precendence. Furthermore, teenage girls would be specially targetted for training and income generating activities, with emphasis on creating new economic and social expectations. It is argued that changes in young women's attitudes and skills could have a farreaching effect

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