Time for development? The case of women's horticultural schemes in rural Gambia

Abstract

Much work has been published in recent years on the role of women in the development process in Africa. One of the major themes to emerge from this literature is that the demands on women's time and energy are increasing. The result is that women are working harder but deriving little benefit from it. The authors’ research in The Gambia has shown that rural women are increasingly being drawn into the development process through involvement in various income‐generating projects, such as vegetable cultivation. Some of these schemes are sponsored by government agencies, others by non‐governmental organisations and others are spontaneous self‐help schemes. The consequence of involvement in such projects is that time, for rural Gambian women, is becoming a scarce resource; women not only participate in horticultural projects, but are also responsible for domestic production and reproduction. All these tasks are performed without any modern equipment. It is suggested that the rural development process in Africa will be frustrated if women's time is not released from traditional laborious energy‐consuming domestic and agricultural duties.