Role of Women in African Societies

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The Role of women in African societies. For a long time, African women have not had an opportunity to freely thrive in education, religion, marriage, politics as well as economic development. Their views have been unconsidered or shunned just because of their gender. In the African culture, division of labor was a common occurrence. However, it was rooted in the values and customs of the societies. There were specific jobs for men and specific jobs for women. The roles of women were complementary to those of men in the society. Women worked in agriculture, food processing, marketing crafts, production and in domestic activities located in the home. Often, men and women worked together in farming and trading but the tasks were gender specific. Men prepared the land for farming by felling the trees and clearing the weeds. On the other hand, women tended to the crops, pounded the grain and collected firewood. To men, the roles performed by women were not considered inferior but inappropriate. According to a survey of African women, the majority of the women have no formal or non-formal education of the western type. Taking an average of all African countries, median educational attainment for women in the age group 15-24 is not up to two years. Median level for women between 35 -64 is less than a year. 85% of all African women are illiterate (Boulding 76). In the African setting, there was a difference in availability of education to men and women. It was mainly directed to men. As illustrated by Jommo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya and one of the most illustrious anthropologists, vocational training was available for both men and women. General education and training in specific occupational skills was available. Even though schooling and literacy were not featured in pre- colonial African societies, education was important for all (Kenyatta 65). However,
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