Women’s Productive and Economic Roles towards Household Poverty Reduction in Ghana. A Survey of Bongo District in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Women in society perform several vital roles which can be categorized into three (3). These are reproductive, productive or economic, and community management. Although this study does appreciate all these forms of important roles played by women in society, it focused on the productive and economic roles that they play in order to help reduce poverty at the household level. Both primary and secondary data were used in the study. The primary data was obtained through interview and observation whereas secondary data was collected through a review of various literatures such as journals, articles, text books and the internet. The sampling techniques used in this study were simple random sampling and purposive sampling.  The study identified that farming and trading were the major occupations among women in the Bongo district. However, the income earnings from these occupations alone by the women could not meet their daily basic needs. Hence, they had to adopt several supplementary income strategies such as breaking of stones for sale; selling of cooked food at market places and hawking to enable them earn income to help meet the daily needs of their households. The need to cater needs of children and the aged, supporting husbands and avoiding stigmatization of being lazy constitutes major reasons for women engaging in most of the petty economic activities even though rewards from such activities are not high especially in monetary terms. Ironically, any efforts by women towards reducing poverty in households are traditionally considered their duty and responsibility and as a result are not given any economic consideration.

Keywords: Economic Role, Household, Poverty, income, livelihood, women.