4. Women’s economic empowerment
This chapter focuses on women’s economic empowerment and access to productive and financial resources in Africa. Adopting a holistic approach, it examines formal and informal laws, social norms and practices to identify the main challenges and forms of discriminations affecting women in the region. These consist of limited employment and labour participation, a large burden of unpaid care and domestic work, and reduced access to agricultural land, food, financial services and entrepreneurship opportunities. The analysis considers the current situation of women and uncovers underlying factors. Based on this analysis, the chapter provides policy recommendations to improve women’s economic empowerment and to promote equal access to productive and financial resources.
The economic dimension is central to women’s empowerment and includes women’s ability to participate in the labour market and to earn an income, as well as their ability to access and control productive and financial resources. It also encompasses a wider set of issues, including control over their own time, lives and bodies, and their meaningful participation and representation in economic decision-making processes at all levels – from within the household to the highest economic and political positions (UN Women, 2020[1]). Women’s economic empowerment focuses primarily on women’s capacity to make strategic choices and exercise agency in the economic sphere, but it also paves the way for changes in other dimensions of their lives, such as well-being, social empowerment, health or education (Kabeer, 2009[2]).
Africa continues to experience large gender gaps, as shown by its performance against key economic indicators on the African Gender Index (AGI), a composite index developed jointly by the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The continent obtains a score of 62% in the AGI’s economic dimension, indicating that women in African countries benefit from about two-thirds of the economic opportunities available to men (AfDB and UNECA, 2020[3]).
The present chapter is divided into three main sections. The first section looks at the main indicators of women’s economic empowerment. It provides a broad overview of the situation of women in Africa across two dimensions: their inclusion and position in the labour market and their access to critical assets and resources. The second section of the chapter explores underlying factors that explain the inequalities observed between men and women in terms of labour and access to resources. This section uncovers the role played by discriminatory social norms, attitudes and stereotypes in explaining women’s exclusion from the labour market, their lower job status compared to men, their limited ownership of agricultural land and assets, and the constraints faced by women entrepreneurs in Africa. The third and last section presents some key policy recommendations that could help address discriminatory social institutions that constrain women’s economic empowerment in Africa. A table summarising some key indicators for women’s economic empowerment in Africa can be found at the end of the chapter in Annex 4.A.
Women’s employment in Africa is characterised by limited participation, high informality and jobs of low status
As elsewhere in the world, women’s labour force participation in Africa is lower than that of men. In 2020, the labour force participation gap stood at nearly 20 percentage points, with 54% of African women contributing to the labour force compared to 73% of men (Figure 4.1, Panel A). However, these averages conceal a much more diverse landscape at the regional, national and sub-regional level. In East Africa, women’s labour force participation rate is 73% – the highest on the continent – while the gender gap is lower at 9 percentage points. In Central Africa, women’s labour force participation is slightly lower at 66%, but the sub-region displays the lowest gender gap on the continent at only 7 percentage points. In contrast, women’s participation in the labour force in North Africa is very low at only 21%, with an extremely large gender gap of 49 percentage points. At the country level, in Burundi, Madagascar, Rwanda and Tanzania, women’s labour force participation rate is greater than 80%. Moreover, in some countries, women have a higher labour force participation than men, as observed in Guinea and Rwanda, for instance.
Nevertheless, women in Africa – and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa – have always contributed significantly to household income, in many instances through informal arrangements or as a family worker. This is particularly the case in rural settings, where women often work on the family’s plot and contribute to the production of both cash crops and subsistence farming. Moreover, women’s paid or unpaid contribution to household income comes on top of unpaid care and domestic work, the vast majority of which is performed by women, resulting in them working significantly longer hours than men, particularly in rural areas (ActionAid, 2017[4]).
Women’s employment in Africa is characterised by high rates of informality. The proportion of employed women working in the informal sector is slightly higher than for men (90% and 83%, respectively) (ILO, 2018[5]). Such informal employment status excludes them from social protection benefits and makes them extremely vulnerable to shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Box 4.1).
Women’s employment is also characterised by lower job status compared to men. For instance, women tend to be confined to more vulnerable forms of employment such as contributing family workers. At the continental level, 23% of employed women work as paid employees or employers, compared to 40% of men. Conversely, 25% of working women are contributing family workers compared to only 9% of working men (Figure 4.1, Panel B). This distribution of men and women across the different forms of employment is found in all African sub-regions and countries: women are systematically underrepresented as employees and employers and overrepresented as contributing family workers.
Note: The labour force participation rate is calculated as the labour force divided by the total population aged 15 years and older.
Source: (ILO, n.d.[6]), ILOSTAT, https://ilostat.ilo.org/data.
The impact of women’s lower job status on the gender pay gap is difficult to measure. The importance of informality, the weight of agriculture – which implies that the majority of income is earned at the household level – the lack of statistical capacities as well as other factors mean that measures of income in most African countries are scarce, collected irregularly and subject to potential strong biases. Yet, in the few countries where data exist – although often partial – evidence suggests that women earn less than men. In 2015, in South Africa, the gender pay gap was estimated at nearly 20%. Furthermore, in ten African countries that were analysed, data suggest that the gender pay gap is particularly large at the bottom of the wage distribution (ILO, 2019[7]).
Horizontal segregation is high across all economic sectors. Women tend to be overrepresented in certain sectors while being almost completely absent from others. For instance, in sectors such as construction, mining and quarrying, or transport, storage and communication, men systematically and consistently account for more than 80% of the workers (Figure 4.2, Panel B). Conversely, women are predominant in sectors such as accommodation, wholesale and retail trade or household services. At the continental level, women account for 64% and 55% of workers in the accommodation and food services sector and the wholesale and retail sectors, respectively. In East, Central and West Africa, women account for more than 70% of the workers in the accommodation sector. Likewise, women represent about 65% of the workers in wholesale and retail trade in Central and West Africa (Figure 4.2, Panel A). In the context of the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, this horizontal segregation has induced greater adverse economic consequences for women than for men (Box 4.1).
Note: Sectors are based on the ISIC rev.4 classification of ILO. In Panel A, "Other services" corresponds to the aggregation of categories R (Arts, entertainment and recreation), S (Other service activities), T (Activities of households as employers; undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use) and U (Activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies) of ISIC rev.4.
Source: (ILO, n.d.[6]), ILOSTAT, https://ilostat.ilo.org/data.
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the deepest global economic recession in nearly a century, disrupting economic activity and negatively affecting well-being and jobs. For the first time in 25 years, Africa has experienced its first recession. The economic output of the continent, which is highly exposed to external shocks, has contracted by 2.1% to 4.9%, according to different scenarios jointly developed by the African Union and the OECD Development Centre (AUC/OECD, 2021[8]). Furthermore, the crisis is having disproportionate economic impacts on women that if not mitigated, may worsen long-term economic empowerment and pre-existing labour market imbalances.
The economic crisis primarily affects sectors in which women are overrepresented
The COVID-19 crisis encompassing lockdown and confinement measures, as well as the disruption of international supply chains and tourism, has severely affected specific sectors, such as retail trade, accommodation and food services, and domestic services, where women in Africa are overrepresented (Annex Table 4.A.1). Across the region, women account for 55% and 64% of workers employed in the wholesale and retail trade sector and the accommodation and food services sector, respectively. Women also account for a disproportionate share of workers involved in household and domestic services, which suffered heavily from the crisis (ILO, 2020[9]). Domestic workers often do not benefit from any social protection schemes, a situation that increases their hardship when faced with job uncertainty. Moreover, women in the informal economy are more often found in the most vulnerable situations, for instance as domestic workers, home-based workers or contributing family workers, compounding their vulnerabilities (ILO, 2018[5]).
Lockdown and confinement measures exacerbate women’s burden of unpaid care and domestic work and jeopardise their jobs in a context of widespread informality
Overloaded healthcare systems combined with partial or full lockdowns in at least 42 countries on the continent (AUC/OECD, 2021[8]), and reduced availability of essential services such as schools or day-care centres, has increased the burden of unpaid care and domestic work that falls on African women. This increase has accentuated pre-existing gender imbalances. Rapid gender assessments conducted by UN Women in several countries of East and Southern Africa showed that women were more likely than men to spend more time on unpaid domestic work compared to the situation prior to the pandemic (UN Women and UNFPA, 2021[10]).
Lockdown and confinement measures have primarily affected informal workers. Faced with strict movement limitations to contain the spread of the pandemic, many informal workers, particularly in urban settings, have lost their jobs and income. Recent evidence suggests that in Africa, the impact on women has been particularly strong, pushing many out of the labour force and widening the pre-pandemic gender gap (Weber, Palacio-Lopez and Contreras-Gonzalez, 2020[11]).
Limited access to assets and resources constrains women’s ability to invest and create businesses
Women’s ownership of agricultural land across African countries appears extremely limited in a context where agriculture remains central to many African economies. In 2020, estimates indicated that agricultural output represented about 15% of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) (World Bank, n.d.[12]). More importantly, in spite of the progressive transition among countries towards industry and services, the agricultural sector continues to function as the main source of employment, particularly for women. At the continental level, 49% of the labour force and 51% of working women are employed in agriculture. In certain sub-regions, such as Central Africa or East Africa, more than 60% of women are employed in the agricultural sector. Yet, although women account for 45% of the agricultural workforce on the continent, their ownership of agricultural land remains much lower than men’s. At the continental level, women account for only 12% of agricultural landowners (Figure 4.3, Panel A). Even in East Africa and Southern Africa, where the share of women among agricultural landowners is highest, the proportion only reaches 18% and 25%, respectively. The situation is particularly critical in Central Africa where women make up 53% of the agricultural workforce but only account for 9% of agricultural land owners.
Women’s limited ownership of land assets has significant consequences for their empowerment. Ownership of agricultural land and related decision-making power is critical to women’s economic empowerment as land is not only an essential element for food security and income generation, it can also serve as collateral for credit and as a means of saving for the future. Moreover, agricultural land is also a social asset: historically, land ownership has brought political power, especially in agrarian societies (Holcombe, 2020[13]). In this regard, women’s low ownership of agricultural land in Africa shapes their lack of agency, political influence and decision-making power (see Chapter 5).
Note: In Panel A, data are available for 24 African countries. In Panel B, data are available for 44 African countries. Global, regional and sub-regional averages are calculated based only on the available data.
Source: (OECD Development Centre/OECD, 2019[14]), Gender, Institutions and Development Database, https://doi.org/10.1787/ba5dbd30-en; and (World Bank, 2017[15]), Global Findex database, https://globalfindex.worldbank.org.
Women in Africa are more likely to be entrepreneurs than men, but their businesses face more challenges than those owned by men. At the continental level, 55% of women work as employers or own-account workers. In particular, evidence suggests that limited opportunities for formal waged employment act as a powerful incentive for individuals, and particularly women, to start a business. In many cases, starting a business allows women to engage in income-generating activities and to diversify sources of household income (AfDB/OECD/UNDP, 2017[16]). The inherent greater flexibility in working hours of entrepreneurship compared to waged employment may also allow women the time they may need to assume other responsibilities, such as caring for children or performing unpaid care and domestic work (e.g. cooking or cleaning). The continent has given rise to many successful women entrepreneurs who have managed to create and operate large and profitable businesses (Box 4.2).
Historically, Africa has been home to many successful women entrepreneurs who have succeeded in spite of the challenges and barriers they may face. Three such success stories are presented below.
The “Nana Benz” and the Dutch wax printed cloth industry, Togo
An early example of entrepreneurial success were the “Nana Benz” in Togo. Filling a gap created by the booming phosphate industry and the diversion of much of the labour force towards the extractive industry, a group of women built a business trading Dutch wax printed cloth. Historically, Dutch wax was a major trading good of West Africa but the industry had since fallen into disarray. Within a few years, these women established a quasi-monopoly over the clothing trade spanning the whole region, from Burkina Faso to the Congo. Their nickname came from the Mercedes Benz cars they imported at the height of their success during the 1970s and the 1980s. Their business started to decline in the 1990s in the face of intense competition from women entrepreneurs from countries such as Nigeria. However, today a new generation of Togolese women entrepreneurs dubbed the “Nanettes” has emerged and is carrying on the early entrepreneurial success enjoyed by the “Nana Benz”.
Massogbè Touré Diabaté and the cashew business, Côte d’Ivoire
In the 1980s, cashew was not a significant crop in Côte d’Ivoire, although thousands of cashew trees had been planted to reforest land parcels and protect the soil. At this time, the agricultural sector was heavily dominated by men. Following a business trip to India where she observed the successful cashew trade, Massogbè Touré Diabaté established a women’s co-operative to plant cashew trees. Initially focusing on cashew production, she moved progressively up the value chain initiating the industrial transformation of cashew in Côte d’Ivoire. In 2000, she founded the Société ivoirienne de traitement d'anacarde. By 2018, the company had more than 800 employees, the majority of whom were women. The company has also operated a microfinance institution since 1991 with the objective of facilitating women’s access to capital.
Julian Adyeri Omalla and fruit juices, Uganda
In 1996, after working for her brothers, Julian Adyeri Omalla established Delight Uganda Limited, which sells a popular fruit drink under the brand name “Cheers”. Over the years, the business has grown becoming the main producer of fruit juice in Uganda, with more than 1 000 employees, and exporting to all neighbouring countries. Since the outset, Julian Adyeri Omalla’s strategy has relied on setting up growers’ schemes and developing networks of raw fruits providers. These efforts focused primarily on creating business relationships with small women growers across Uganda. Estimates suggest that Julian Adyeri Omalla has mobilised and engaged with over 500 000 vulnerable women farmers to establish orchards, which are intercropped with short-term seasonal crops for income and sustainability.
Sources: Gaston-Breton (2020[17]), “De si puissantes femmes d’affaires… L’étonnante histoire des « Nanas Benz » du Togo”, History & Business; Gbadamassi (2018[18]), “#8Mars2018. Côte d’Ivoire: le cajou, les femmes et Massogbè Touré Diabaté”, France Info Afrique ; Cloutour (2018[19]), Leadership Féminin dans l’Economie Africaine : portrait de Massogbè Touré Diabaté, PDG du groupe SITA; Jjingo (2020[20]), “Julian Omalla wins UN award for inclusive business model”, The Observer; Lioness of Africa (n.d.[21]), Profile of Julian Adyeri Omalla, Lioness of Africa.
However, data on the characteristics of enterprises owned by African women, although scarce, seem to suggest that women-led businesses face specific constraints that limit their profitability, scalability and growth. Women entrepreneurs are concentrated in specific sectors and are much more likely to work in non-tradable services than men entrepreneurs (AfDB/OECD/UNDP, 2017[16]). Moreover, women-owned businesses are smaller, less capital intensive and are more likely to operate in the informal sector than men-owned businesses (World Bank Group, 2019[22]). Self-employed workers are also less likely to use digital resources. As self-employment – often in the informal economy – will likely continue to be the most dominant form of employment in Africa in the short-to-medium term, efforts to develop the use of digital tools to support existing business activities will prove critical to raising the profitability of micro and small enterprises, particularly in rural areas and for firms owned by women (AUC/OECD, 2021[8]).
Access to financial services, and more precisely to bank accounts and formal credit, remains limited for both men and women. At the continental level, only 26% of women have a formal bank account, compared to 38% of men. Women’s rate of bank account ownership ranges from 15% in Central Africa (18% for men) to 42% in Southern Africa (49% for men) (Figure 4.3, Panel B). Beyond existing gender gaps in access to formal bank accounts, the primary issue remains the low development of banking capacities and the limited offer, which concerns both men and women alike. Structural barriers to bank account ownership are significant, and include the lack of official identification required to open an account or seek a loan, long distances to branches and lack of financial literacy among the population. In rural areas in particular, the cost of providing banking services is often too high for financial institutions. For financial intermediaries, factors such as income level, level of household savings, average size of loans, but also population density or age dependency ratios, may have a profound effect on the cost effectiveness of providing financial services to the population (Barajas et al., 2020[23]).This may create multiple levels of discrimination for women, who may also need to ask their husband’s permission to travel to the nearest bank branch (or post office access point).
Initiatives to address the financial access gap have led to the rapid development of mobile banking across African countries. Between 2014 and 2017, in the 29 African countries with available data, the share of women with a mobile bank account increased in all countries but one,1 and by more than 15 percentage points in eight of them.2 Governments have also tried to address traditional barriers to financial inclusion through innovative approaches based on the roll-out of digital technologies. In many parts of the continent, one of the main impediments to access to finance is a lack of formal identity and related documentation, which are necessary to open a bank account. Recent experiments across the continent have sought to deploy biometric-based technology to provide individuals with reliable identification tools and to enhance registration at birth. However, governments are looking beyond traditional usage of biometric tools (e.g. for security purposes), seeking to create an identity ecosystem to support the delivery of financial services as well as social benefits, health services and so forth (Toesland, 2021[24]; Aït-Hatrit, 2020[25]). For instance, since 2017, Malawi has embarked on a nationwide mass registration initiative aimed at building a single identity registry with unique national identity numbers. The programme aims to register citizens who lack a formal identity on a massive scale and to revamp birth registration processes in a country where only 2-3% of births were previously recorded in an official manner. Among other goals, the provision of a reliable identity document is expected to lift current barriers to financial inclusion (Hersey, 2020[26]; Handforth and Wilson, 2019[27]).
Borrowing capital is not uncommon in Africa but is traditionally done informally through family and friends. The gender gap in obtaining formal credit or loans is very small in Africa. In 2017, only 6% of women and 8% of men in sub-Saharan Africa declared having borrowed money from a financial institution. These figures show that formal borrowing is very limited for the whole population, women and men alike. However, informal borrowing occurs at high levels: in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 30% of the population had borrowed from family or friends (29% of women). In countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Libya, Namibia, Swaziland and Uganda, the share of women who had borrowed from family and friends in 2017 was higher than 40% (World Bank, 2017[15]).
Women face higher constraints than men to obtaining loans (e.g. lack of potential collateral), which results in less favourable financial terms – higher interest rates, shorter maturity, etc. – and smaller loans. These differences in loan characteristics contribute significantly to the capital investment gap between women-owned and men-owned businesses. Drawing on data collected in ten African countries,3 analysis from the World Bank shows that the typical man-owned firm in these countries has over six times the capital investment of the typical woman-owned enterprise. This, in turn, plays a central role in explaining the gender gap in business performance (World Bank Group, 2019[22]).
Deeply entrenched and structural, discriminatory social institutions are at the root of these unequal gender outcomes. They entail laws and regulations that discriminate against women and prevent them from being economically on an equal footing with men (see Chapter 2). Beyond structural and legal barriers, they also include norms, attitudes, stereotypes and fundamental customs and traditions that place constraints on women’s economic activity, participation in the labour market, ownership of assets and so on. This section uncovers the role played by these discriminatory social institutions in explaining women’s exclusion from and marginalisation within the labour market, their lower job status compared to men, their limited ownership of agricultural land and assets, and the barriers to successful women-led entrepreneurship in Africa.
Discriminatory gender roles within the household constrain women’s access to the labour market
Discriminatory social institutions – in particular social norms within society and the household – severely constrain women’s labour force participation (Ferrant and Kolev, 2016[28]). Evidence from the SIGI shows that in almost all African countries, formal laws as well as discriminatory customary and traditional practices that undermine these legal frameworks continue to restrict women’s work-related rights (see Chapter 2 on legal frameworks). Attitudes related to women’s paid employment are also important. Social norms that discourage women from choosing to have a paid job outside the household are highly and negatively correlated with lower female-to-male labour force participation ratios (Figure 4.4, Panel A). In Africa, 18% of the population disagrees with the statement: “It is perfectly acceptable for any woman in your family to have a paid job outside the home if she wants to.” Rates range from 4% in Mauritius to 38% in Algeria.
African women continue to assume the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work. In 2018, in the 23 African countries for which data are available, women spent, on average, 4.1 times more time than men did on unpaid care and domestic work, including raising children, caring for sick or elderly family members, and managing household tasks (Figure 4.4, Panel B). The ongoing COVID-19 crisis exacerbates these imbalances with lockdown measures often leading to additional unpaid care and domestic work which falls on the shoulders of women and girls (Box 4.1).
Women’s disproportionate burden of unpaid care and domestic work reinforces their low participation in the labour market and limits their economic empowerment. Among others, it constrains the allocation of their time, their mobility, their employment opportunities and their ability to engage in political and civic activities (see Chapter 5). It also pushes women to seek work arrangements that are more flexible, often part-time and closer to home, all of which results in the segregation of women into the informal sector and low-status jobs (Dieterich, Huang and Thomas, 2016[29]; Kabeer, 2009[2]).
Note: Panel A: Negative attitudes towards working women are defined as the share of the population that disagrees with the statement: “It is perfectly acceptable for any woman in your family to have a paid job outside the home if she wants to.” The female-to-male labour force participation ratio is calculated as the women’s labour force participation rate divided by the men’s labour force participation rate. The labour force participation rate is calculated as the labour force divided by the total working-age population. The working-age population refers to people aged 15-64 years. Attitudinal data cover 147 countries; data are missing for ten African countries: Angola, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sudan. R² is 0.4589.
Panel B: The female-to-male ratio of unpaid care and domestic work is calculated as the average number of hours dedicated by women to unpaid care work and domestic tasks divided by the average number of hours dedicated by men to the same tasks. Data are only available for 23 African countries. Global and regional averages are calculated based only on the available data.
Source: (OECD Development Centre/OECD, 2019[14]), Gender, Institutions and Development Database, https://doi.org/10.1787/ba5dbd30-en; (OECD, 2020[30]), Labour Force Statistics, https://oe.cd/ds/2Sp; and (ILO, n.d.[6]), ILOSTAT, https://ilostat.ilo.org/data.
The unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work in households is the product of discriminatory social norms and traditional views of gender roles. In 2018, for instance, 77% of respondents in Tunisia declared that children will suffer when a mother works for pay outside the home. The data on these social norms reveal the deeply entrenched and gender-differentiated social expectations faced by women and men. Women’s paid labour is not viewed as favourably as men’s because paid work is a fundamental aspect of masculine identity (OECD, 2021[31]). Indeed, in order to be considered “real” men, men are often expected to be breadwinners and financial providers for their families. Conversely, caring for family members and the home is a primary social expectation of women. By confining women to domestic tasks, these rigid social norms and restrictive masculinities have a profound impact on women’s participation in the labour market.
The characteristics of women’s employment – low participation, high informality and jobs of low status – highlight their dual role as the primary caretaker of the household and a contributor to the household’s income. Women in Africa – and particularly in rural areas – tend to contribute significantly to household income but primarily through informal arrangements or as a contributing family worker (ActionAid, 2017[4]). Cross-country evidence in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda and Zambia have shown how marriage, and thus a significant increase in women’s domestic responsibilities, has a strong negative effect on women’s labour characteristics. In these countries, data suggest that many married women face additional unpaid care and domestic work and as a result drop out of formal waged employment, transferring either to household enterprises as informal employees or into agriculture to work on the family’s plot (Dieterich, Huang and Thomas, 2016[29]). In general, intra-household dynamics, gender roles, and the need for women to remain flexible in order to fulfil their unpaid care and domestic responsibilities confine women to a role of secondary earner who enters and exits the workforce depending on personal or local circumstances (e.g. the COVID-19 crisis, see Box 4.1). Typically, informal employment provides women with both the ability to contribute to the household’s income and allows sufficient time and commitment flexibility to fulfil the household’s duties.
Perception of women’s abilities and discriminatory educational norms tend to confine women to low-status jobs in specific sectors of the economy
Norms and stereotypes that associate men and women with certain inherent characteristics tend to naturally orient women’s and men’s labour choices towards certain sectors of the economy. Norms of restrictive masculinities dictate that a “real” man should work in sectors and jobs that are considered by society as “manly” jobs (OECD, 2021[31]). Traditions, customs and gender norms thus play a fundamental role in promoting and sustaining the social definition of tasks that are considered as adequate for either men or women. These social associations between gender and types of jobs are often rooted in what are considered masculine and feminine traits – e.g. physical strength for men and being caring for women (Buscatto and Fusulier, 2013[32]; Simpson, 2004[33]). African economies are no exception and gender segregation across economic sectors mirrors existing social stereotypes and beliefs about men’s and women’s traits and characteristics. Men tend to be overrepresented in “manly” sectors such as construction, mining and quarrying or transport, storage and communication, whereas women are predominant in sectors such as accommodation, wholesale and retail trade or household services.
Discriminatory norms and practices related to educational choices play a critical role. First, harmful social practices such as girl child marriage, school-related violence against girls and female genital mutilation4 constitute strong impediments to girls’ education, curtailing their future professional opportunities (Yotebieng, 2021[34]). Evidence from Uganda and Ethiopia show that girls continue to drop out of school – mostly at the secondary level – either as a result of early marriage or pregnancy (Watson, 2014[35]). In many instances, women who did not benefit from education have no choice but to take on low-status jobs, often in the informal sector or remain employed within the household, either on the family plot or in the household business. Socio-economic development is also a key factor, as households with limited resources tend to make educational choices favouring sons, primarily because the expected returns on such investments are believed to be higher than for daughters. As a result, parents are often reluctant to invest in the education of girls (UNICEF, 2016[36]). In Uganda, for instance, around 10% of the population believes that more resources should be invested in the education and care of boys (OECD Development Centre, 2015[37]).
At the same time, biases related to boys’ and girls’ abilities shape educational choices when accessing secondary and tertiary education, in particular regarding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, thereby accentuating gender-based segregation in the labour force. On the one hand, social norms, stereotypes and strong unconscious biases lead people to perceive certain fields of study as masculine and play a critical role in dictating the types of programmes in which women enrol compared with men. For instance, self-selection bias is considered a key factor in girls opting out of STEM fields (Llena-Nozal, Martin and Murtin, 2019[38]; UNESCO, 2017[39]). On the other hand, learning materials perpetuate gender stereotypes by assigning certain functions and skills to girls and boys from as early as primary or secondary education. As a consequence, women and men acquire very different sets of skills, not because of their inherent capabilities but because of unconscious and deeply entrenched biases. This, in turn, prevents women from joining fast-growing economic sectors characterised by well-paid job opportunities. For instance, in Central Africa, where poor STEM education for women is a central concern, women are 25% less likely than men to be able to use information and communication technology (ICT) tools for basic purposes, such as using simple arithmetic formulas in software (AUC/OECD, 2021[8]).
The implications for economic empowerment are far-reaching, as women in Africa seem to be largely drawn to sectors that are less profitable or where wages are lower. Analysis of firms’ profitability shows that the sectors in which women traditionally work or operate a business are less profitable than those dominated by men (e.g. construction or transportation). However, in sectors traditionally dominated by men, the few women-owned businesses that operate tend to be as large and as efficient as those owned by men. In sectors traditionally dominated by women (e.g. wholesale, retail, or accommodation and food services), women-owned businesses tend to underperform men-owned ones (World Bank Group, 2019[22]). These findings suggest that (i) women entrepreneurs could benefit from moving towards men-dominated sectors; and (ii) that women operating in sectors traditionally dominated by women must face structural constraints and barriers that prevent them from achieving the same levels of profitability than men. Addressing gender segregation, structural biases and other obstacles that confine women to certain sectors is therefore essential for women to be able to access good labour opportunities. In this regard, factors such as the influence of close male role models who can act as mentors, or exposure to the sector by family and friends, have proven decisive in encouraging women to enter traditionally men-dominated sectors (World Bank Group, 2019[22]).
Men’s traditional status and roles, household decision-making practices and discriminatory inheritance practices limit women’s ownership of agricultural land and constrain their economic independence
Unequal ownership of and control over land between men and women is rooted in discriminatory social institutions. At the global level, results from the SIGI show that as discrimination in social institutions increases, the average share of women among owners of agricultural land decreases (Figure 4.5). Multiple underlying factors are at stake, ranging from discriminatory laws that limit women’s rights to hold or control land assets to customary laws and social norms that undermine existing statutory laws.
Note: SIGI scores range from 0 to 100, with 0 indicating no discrimination and 100 indicating absolute discrimination. Countries are classified into five categories, which indicate the level of discrimination in social institutions. Categories are based on SIGI scores: very low level of discrimination (SIGI <20); low level of discrimination (SIGI 20-30); medium level of discrimination (SIGI 30-40); high level of discrimination (SIGI 40-50); and very high level of discrimination (SIGI >50).
Source: (OECD Development Centre/OECD, 2019[14]), Gender, Institutions and Development Database, https://doi.org/10.1787/ba5dbd30-en.
In many African countries, legal frameworks, and particularly customary ones, contain obstacles to women’s full and unhindered ownership of agricultural land. In eight African countries,5 the law establishes the husband as the head of the family, with control and ownership over the management and administration of assets and properties, including agricultural plots and land. Beyond discriminatory civil laws, customary rules and laws in the vast majority of African countries clearly delineate men as the primary decision makers in the household with the power to administer key assets, including agricultural land. Evidence suggests that discriminatory customs, traditional practices and religious laws prevent women form inheriting, acquiring, using, managing and/or owning land (OECD, 2019[40]). These legal frameworks are rooted in the powerful social belief that men’s identity is inextricably linked to the position of primary decision makers regarding important family matters, including large family assets such as land property.
At the same time, limited enforcement of existing statutory laws remains weak, favouring the prevalence of social norms and customary laws. For instance, in 2013, Kenya passed the Matrimonial Property Act which recognises spouses as equal property owners and protects women’s rights to land ownership during marriage, divorce and separation (Government of Kenya, 2013[41]). Yet, lack of enforcement of the law, limited knowledge on the part of women regarding their own rights and the prevalence of customary practices continue to hamper women’s access to land. Likewise, evidence from the SIGI Uganda country study, gathered in 2013, showed that despite the adoption of a Land Act in 2004, which improves women’s access to land and grants them the right to manage their property, discriminatory views and practices still persist. In some districts of the country, multiple factors contribute to the denial of equal rights to land between men and women. First, the large majority of landowners are still men and decision-making powers are typically granted to them. Second, the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes means that the majority of the population disagree with women having equal access and decision-making power over agricultural land. Finally, most women who own land have no power to administer their land holdings as legislation does not prescribe co-ownership clauses (OECD Development Centre, 2015[37]).
Women’s limited ownership of agricultural land in Africa stems primarily from traditions and customs that consider men to be the rightful owners. In the majority of African countries, occupation of land and the associated rights (e.g. use and decision making) stem from the ways the land is used, as well as from kinship and other social and political relationships among people using that land (Higgins and Fenrich, 2011[42]). These relationships not only often supersede civil or common law where it exists, but also constitute a challenge for policy makers when it comes to adapting them to civil or common law. Consequently, for the most part, customary laws are the primary determinant of who owns, manages, inherits and has access to land. Traditional and customary views, transmitted from generation to generation, are rooted in the assumption that men undertake the bulk of agricultural work and grant them ownership of the land on this basis. Evidence from Ghana shows that systems of customary land tenure are typically organised in a patrilineal manner: women customarily do not have the right to inherit family land, but can obtain use rights through their husbands and son (Lambrecht and Karoff, 2020[43]).
Social practices governing household assets in marriage and inheritance also prevent women’s ownership of land. There are many examples of cases in which the administration of household finances is customarily transferred to the husband following marriage. At the same time, the social consequences of marriage reinforce discriminatory customs and views that land should belong to men. In many African countries, women traditionally leave their family upon marriage and join the family of the husband. As such, any asset she might own would be lost to the family of her clan. It therefore becomes crucial to ensure that land stays in the family through inheritance and preferences for sons. In other words, women’s ability to inherit assets is intrinsically linked to customary practices which favour boys’ inheritance rights over girls’. The consequences for women themselves are severe as they are often left with very few assets in cases of divorce or the death of the husband.
Discriminatory social norms and expectations that constrain women’s employment and level of income may also perpetuate their limited access to land assets over the long term. Individuals obtain access to assets through purchase, inheritance or state intervention (Kabeer, 2009[2]): in each of these three channels, evidence shows that strongly embedded discriminatory social norms and practices prevent women from accessing assets on an equal footing with men. For instance, views of women’s and men’s roles in the household and broader society, and social norms that expect men to be the principal breadwinner, may undermine women’s access to work, promotions and equal remuneration for labour of equal value. Even when women work and contribute to the household’s income – as is mostly the case in African economies – discriminatory practices tend to curtail women’s decision-making power and control over household finances (OECD, 2021[31]). These forces, in turn, allow very few women to have the necessary resources to purchase assets on their own, further reinforcing men’s economic dominance.
Even when state interventions are designed to correct ownership imbalances, social norms and biases may undermine their effect. Addressing the structural barriers preventing women from owning and making decisions regarding agricultural land is essential for their empowerment. Evidence from Malawi, Mali and Tanzania suggest that the ownership of agricultural land has a positive impact on women’s ability to make decisions on non-agricultural choices such as household expenditure or investment in the human capital of the household such as education, health and nutrition (Mishra and Sam, 2016[44]; Doss et al., 2014[45]). Ownership of immovable property (land or a house) may also lower the risk of marital violence compared to the situation of women without property (Yokying and Lambrecht, 2020[46]). Therefore, in many African countries, where agriculture is women’s main economic activity, policies that enhance land rights equity and favour the formalisation of land ownership through land titling have the potential to increase women’s empowerment and associated positive effects on welfare. Yet, the privatisation and formalisation of land ownership comes with policy challenges and may replicate or aggravate existing imbalances (Box 4.3).
Formalising or privatising land – an often-cited solution to unequal land ownership rates – may entail both benefits and risks for women’s economic empowerment. When moving from customary to formal land ownership rights, pitfalls regarding women’s access, use and ownership of the land may arise. In Africa, access to land is often based on user rights and not individual ownership. Most women gain these user rights through men (i.e. through marriage or from their father or son). Due to their complexity, customary laws might not be easily translatable into statutory law or may provoke consequences that can aggravate women’s current situation (Djurfeldt, 2019[47]; Higgins and Fenrich, 2011[42]).
Benefits associated with privatisation and formalisation of land
By recognising and formalising existing rights, land titling grants the security of tenure, providing the legal landowner with legal protection against land-grabbing practices or unlawful claims.
Land titling encourages productive investment by guaranteeing that the legal landowner reaps the benefits of the resources invested.
Formalising landownership provides the landowner with the necessary legal rights to engage the land as collateral, providing them with access to institutional credit.
Risks associated with privatisation and formalisation of land
Marginal groups, including women, may lose land use rights they previously enjoyed under traditional regimes. There is also a risk that access to common goods, such as water, will be lost under privatisation of land.
Titling reforms may benefit the wealthier and/or educated more due to their better understanding of the processes. This knowledge can be used to their advantage, amplifying existing inequalities.
Social norms stigmatising women’s land ownership could result in land being acquired, formalised or registered under the name of the husband, eroding the purpose of the policy reform.
While many customary laws are often discriminatory and not equitable, conventional models of land formalisation carry with them the risk of aggravating an already inferior situation for women. The systematisation of joint land ownership by husband and wife, particularly in the context of formalisation of customary ownership, could be a possible way forward to avoid negative repercussions and to promote women’s economic empowerment (Meinzen-Dick and Mwangi, 2009[48]).
Various discriminatory social norms and biases related to access to markets, finance, training and networks hamper women’s entrepreneurship in Africa
Although African women are more likely to be entrepreneurs than men, they face more operational constraints, which limit the profitability of their businesses and related growth opportunities. Specific market conditions and strategic choices (e.g. in which sector to operate) hinder the performance of women-led businesses:
Women choose to enter economic sectors in which they are already overrepresented and that are likely to be less profitable.
Women own less assets and have less capital to invest into their businesses.
These differences are strongly shaped by discriminatory social norms and practices and, ultimately, perpetuate the lower performance rate and profitability of women-led businesses in Africa. Evidence from a number of African countries6 show that, on average, women-led companies have monthly profits that are 34% lower than those run by men (World Bank Group, 2019[22]).
Horizontal segregation plays an important role and mirrors existing social stereotypes and beliefs about men’s and women’s traits and characteristics. Women-owned enterprises are primarily concentrated in the retail sector and tend to be less evident in the transport, manufacturing and construction sectors. This has a profound impact on the profitability of women-led businesses as the latter sectors, which are dominated by men-owned companies, tend to be more profitable (Alibhai et al., 2017[49]; Campos et al., 2015[50]). Evidence points towards a lack of required skills to join certain sectors that are dominated by men, such as the ICT sector (Buehren and Van Salisbury, 2017[51]; Campos et al., 2015[50]). These difficulties reflect distinct educational choices that stem from gender stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes related to boys’ and girls’ cognitive abilities.
Strong social norms that view men as better business managers than women – and their internalisation by women themselves – also constrain women’s entrepreneurship. For instance, in Burkina Faso, nearly 20% of the population (and 12% of women) think that a woman cannot manage a business as well as a man (OECD Development Centre, 2018[52]). Likewise, among entrepreneurs in Ghana, women are 14% less likely than men to think they would make a good leader (World Bank Group, 2019[22]). These negative attitudes have at least two major consequences: they participate in shaping women’s lack of confidence in their own abilities as entrepreneurs, which may prevent them from taking certain risks (e.g. competing in a sector dominated by men); and they undermine their status, curtailing their access to business opportunities and resources (e.g. loans, information, networks, etc.).
Access to financing is critical for the success of any business. In Africa, both men and women face structural difficulties in accessing credit and developing businesses. However, a wide stream of research suggests that women face higher constraints than men and that discriminatory social institutions play a role in shaping these constraints (World Bank Group, 2019[22]). In particular, social norms and discrimination exert an influence on both demand and supply-side factors, the former through self-selection biases, and the latter through lack of collateral, discriminatory practices from loan providers and limited personal social networks.
On the demand side, research suggests that women in Africa remove themselves from the credit market because of a low self-perception of creditworthiness. Drawing on data from Enterprise Surveys, the African Development Bank shows that in Africa, 6.5% of women-managed firms reported not applying for new loans or credit lines, because they presumed that their application would not be approved, compared to 3.5% of men-managed firms. In North Africa, the share of women-led businesses that did not apply for a loan or a credit line because of low perceived creditworthiness reached 9.3%, compared to 3.2% for men-led companies (Morsy, El-Shal and Woldemichael, 2019[53]). Because women’s self-selection bias does not appear to be related to any intrinsic characteristics of the firms managed, the findings suggest that structural and deeply entrenched factors are at play. Notable among these are lack of financial literacy, discriminatory practices from lending institutions, and biases that view men as better business leaders and managers than women.
On the supply side, women’s lower ownership of valuable assets, lower income and high job informality constrain their access to finance by limiting the ability to satisfy requirements to obtain a loan (e.g. collateral or a steady income). As outlined in the previous section, social norms and customs limiting women’s access to assets – due to inheritance practices favouring men or lack of necessary resources to acquire assets – create a situation whereby women in Africa cannot provide as much collateral as men and therefore enjoy lower access to credit (Beck and de la Torre, 2007[54]). Moreover, in countries where collateral and bankruptcy laws that protect the rights of borrowers and lenders are weaker, the consequences are even more dramatic for women. To mitigate the risk, lenders tend to require more collateral and to establish more stringent credit conditions, which results in the partial exclusion of women from the credit market (Morsy and Youssef, 2017[55]; Beck and de la Torre, 2007[54]).
While studies suggest that men entrepreneurs display greater technical skills than their women entrepreneurs, particularly in terms of financial skills, the underlying reasons may be tied to discriminatory social norms related to gender roles. The role of strong cultural factors and stereotypes related to intra-household specialisation is particularly important, as biases linked to gender roles within the household dictate that men should hold primary or exclusive responsibility for financial matters. Women’s low financial literacy rates also stem from explicit and implicit barriers to working outside the home, accessing credit or holding property (Hung, Yoong and Brown, 2012[56]). For instance, biases in school curricula combined with lack of programmes aimed at raising financial awareness among girls at school perpetuate the idea that financial matters are a prerogative of boys and men.
Finally, opportunities for developing management and entrepreneurial skills, both formally and informally, are greater for men than for women, underscoring the wider access enjoyed by men to networks and mentorship. In Africa, firms owned by men are more likely to offer training programmes than those owned by women (World Bank Group, 2019[22]). More importantly, beyond formal training, informal training through network and kinship relationships is essential to achieve entrepreneurial success, in particular when women try to cross over to men-dominated and more profitable sectors. Yet, as noted earlier, evidence suggest that in Africa, one of the largest barriers to women’s entry into sectors dominated by men is the absence of a close male7 role model working in this sector who can serve as a mentor (Arias, Evans and Santos, 2019[57]).
Improve women’s access to the labour market and to quality jobs
Improve women’s and girls’ education to provide them with the necessary skills to access better jobs:
Put in place retention measures for girls dropping out of school (e.g. by facilitating the re-entry of pregnant adolescent girls into the school system).
Establish sensitisation campaigns against girl child marriage inside and outside of schools to address girls’ dropout rate at the secondary level.
Create programmes to provide girls with access to secondary school facilities, particularly in rural and remote areas (e.g. through safe transportation schemes between households and schools, subsidised safe housing programmes or the creation of public boarding secondary schools opened to girls).
Invest further in girls’ secondary and upper-level quality education.
Address gender norms and structural biases that contribute to horizontal segregation and prevent women from entering certain sectors:
Establish academic orientation sessions and individualised coaching at school to encourage girls and women to join STEM fields at the university level.
Reform school material to eliminate gender stereotypes, for instance by introducing specific modules dedicated to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health, human and child rights, and gender equality.
Measure, recognise, and start reducing and redistributing women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work:
Develop the capacities of National Statistical Offices and provide training on the design and deployment of time-use surveys.
Improve measurement of unpaid care and domestic work by systematically embedding time-use surveys in nationally representative surveys used by National Statistical Offices.
Leverage infrastructure development projects to provide communities with enhanced access to basic services – particularly water and electricity – in order to reduce women’s and girls’ share of unpaid care and domestic work.
Improve women’s access to assets and favour women’s entrepreneurship
Strengthen women’s capacities and position in agriculture:
Establish collaboration schemes for women in agriculture to ensure women can gain access to larger markets and are positioned to take advantage of intra-regional trade.
Design training programmes for women farmers that explain how to take advantage of intra-regional trade and the processes to follow to sell products in international markets.
Stimulate women’s entrepreneurship early on and support women entrepreneurs:
Establish career guidance sessions in schools, and identify mentors and champions who can work with schools to inform youth about profitability and opportunities in specific business sectors.
Set aside public procurement contracts for women-led businesses, especially in sectors where women are underrepresented such as construction, mining and quarrying, etc.
Establish training programmes for women entrepreneurs that aim to overcome unconscious self-defeating biases. Include in this training information about entrepreneurial opportunities in sectors traditionally dominated by men and sessions on profitability and existing opportunities in non-traditional sectors (e.g. construction, mining or transportation).
Develop mentorship programmes and peer-support groups for women entrepreneurs with the objective of developing valuable business networks.
Address traditional norms of restrictive masculinities that constrain women’s economic empowerment and transform them into gender-equitable ones:
Develop communication campaigns with communities to inform and sensitise boys and men of the benefits of women’s economic empowerment for the whole community.
Establish training programmes targeted at religious and community leaders and aimed at sensitising them to the value of increasing women’s access to productive and financial resources within communities.
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Notes
← 1. In Mauritania, between 2014 and 2017, the share of women aged 15 years and above with a mobile money account decreased from 7% to 4% (World Bank, 2017[15]).
← 2. Gabon, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Senegal, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
← 3. Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo and Uganda.
← 4. Female genital mutilation (FGM) can hinder girls’ education primarily because of the complications endured by girls – health issues, pain and distress – which can compromise performance in school and lead to absenteeism and drop out. Other negatives impacts may include the high cost of the ceremony, which can encourage parents to stop paying school fees, or the fact that girls are often considered fit for marriage and are immediately betrothed after the mutilation.
← 5. Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Sudan.
← 6. Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo and Uganda.
← 7. In Uganda, women who had male role models in their youth (e.g. fathers or politicians) were 20% to 28% more likely to cross over to a men-dominated sector than women who did not have such male role models (World Bank Group, 2019[22]).