Family Futures

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The women of Madagascar

In Madagascar, the involvement of women in money-generating

work is a matter of widespread necessity. In recent years, new

activities have appeared in the countryside which are totally

undertaken by women and children, such as producing and selling

granite chippings for municipal road repairs and construction. This

is very hard physical work, with long days working by hand using a

sledgehammer to break up lumps of granite into chippings. Women

have to carry the materials, balanced on their heads, on foot to the

marketplace where they prepare it for sale and handle financial

dealings with customers. It is the same for other building materials

such as bricks and sand.

This work does not release country women from the traditional

responsibilities of raising children and doing household tasks such

as fetching firewood and water, making meals, grinding rice, doing

the washing and looking after domestic animals – as well as

seasonal tasks like growing rice, transplanting seedlings and all the

jobs related to the harvest.

There are many contributing factors to this exploitation of women,

but the main ones are the submissive attitude and prevailing

general ignorance of country women. Submission to the husband

– to any male – is ingrained by local traditions, ways and customs

and reinforced by religious teaching. It is considered a guarantee of

a harmonious family life and a sign of a successful marriage.

In Madagascar, several generations often live under the same

roof, so the values, principles and traditions of the large family are

transmitted unconsciously and naturally. There are no care homes

for the elderly, and day care is neither widespread nor socially

acceptable – particularly as it is not free.

izing terms: whether a woman is a ‘good mother’ or a ‘bad

mother’, or a ‘good worker’ or a ‘bad worker’. Little consid-

eration seems to be given to the fact that the vast majority

of mothers focus solely on the needs of their family and the

socioeconomic realities they are faced with. They strive to

provide the best for the financial and emotional well-being of

their family. They are neither good nor bad, but rather do the

best they can with the resources and energy they can afford.

The issue of balancing the pursuit of income-generating

activities and caring for dependents is even more acutely felt

by mothers in the poor areas of the world. Here, the majority

of women work extremely long hours either in rural commu-

nities or in the informal economy to make a bare-bones living,

sometimes facing very dangerous work environments while

still having to provide basic care at home. In these countries,

women simply cannot afford not to work, and the question of

their work/family life is posed more in terms of survival than

in terms of striking the right balance.

In rural Madagascar women spend on average 32 minutes a

day fetching water.

Thus the time-use in household overhead

production to fill the infrastructure gaps (such as vital water

and energy collection, sanitation and food fetching) dramati-

cally adds to mothers’ already heavy burdens.

Mothers around the world face the same crucial pressure of

providing financially for their families’ well-being, while also

needing to provide the nurturing and care-giving necessities

of their household.

It is fair to say that globally, mothers have responded to

this pressure by working even harder and for more hours, to

the detriment of their own personal time. Yet they are still

paid significantly less than their male counterparts or child-

less female cohorts. It has been suggested that mothers earn

less than childless women because they are less productive. In

fact, they are penalized for going on maternity leave, for possi-

bly not putting in as much ‘face time’ at work as their childless

peers, for having to turn down jobs that require overtime, and

for daring to ask for part-time work. They are simply victims

of the perception/stereotype that women with children are not

as much ‘into’ their jobs as others because they are distracted

by the caring and nurturing requirements of their households.

MMM workshops enable mothers to share their best practices, challenges and knowledge

Image: MMM