Promoting women’s empowerment through grassroots solidarity: A case study of Mothers’ Associations in Benin

• In Event: Dissertation workshop session
  In Special Session: Inequality and Education

Proposal

Institution: University of Ottawa
Supervisor: Professor Richard Maclure

Historically, the right of women to access and participate in Africa’s public spaces has been limited (Howell & Mulligan, 2005). However, as the prominence of civil society organizations (CSOs) in sub-Saharan Africa has expanded, so has the role of women as participants and leaders in these organizations. Despite the great strides women have made, women’s groups and movements are often not represented in development discourse, nor are they supported in their advocacy efforts. To date, for example, there is little empirical evidence to show the connection between the initiatives of such groups – for example, their support for girls’ education – and the extent to which the leadership of these groups is manifested in wider civic engagement. More specifically, limited research has been undertaken to examine the extent to which such informal women’s groups have navigated community barriers to advance gender-equity.

Objectives
Using a gendered lens, this proposed study will investigate how and to what extent women-led community organizations in the country of Benin are mobilizing to: (a) enhance the quality of education for schoolgirls; (b) navigate barriers that are detrimental to the status of women; (c) strengthen women’s empowerment within wider society; (d) and whether there are differences between rural and urban Mothers’ Associations (MA), in their approaches to enhance gender equity. Specifically, it will examine how women have used their collective agency to enhance gender equity within the school and community life. Due to the increasing impact of CSOs worldwide on social change, the study’s focus on grassroots women’s organizations and their ability to effect change is timely as well as relevant and useful to the advancement of all such groups, no matter where they are located.

Research Questions:
The main research questions of my project are:
(1) How do MAs in Benin work within their communities to enhance the prospects of gender equity in (a) education and (b) community life?
a. How have MAs used their agency to navigate structural inequalities embedded in community life?
(2) To what extent are MAs in Benin collaborating with members of the community to achieve gender equity outcomes in girls’ education?
(3) How have MAs in Benin contributed to the increase of, and diverse forms of, women’s civic engagement?
(4) Are there differences between how MAs in rural and urban communities in Benin navigate barriers to gender equity in education and community life, and how they engage civically?

The findings of this study will strengthen understanding of women’s grassroots mobilization and how their methods can serve as a basis for transformative change in both education and community life.

Methods and Framework
I have chosen an ethnographic approach, applying a multiple case study method (Stakes, 2006) in order to deploy several qualitative methods of field research best suited to the specific context, respecting local knowledge systems while simultaneously adhering to my research aims (Chilisa, 2012). My methodological approach is informed by critical feminist theory which, as a framework, is comprised of methodologies of resistance that work towards the following goals: (a) disrupting mainstream academic knowledge; (b) questioning hegemonic understandings of oppression; and (c) calling into question structures of power that govern society (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008).

Data collection will take place in two communities in Parakou – a city in Northern Benin where MAs operate in 54 communities (World Education, 2015). I will use participant observation, field notes, interviews, informal conversations, and digital storytelling with members of MA, members of the community, and NGOs to attain the objectives of my research questions. I will conduct semi-structured one-to-one interviews with members of the MA from each of the two communities (N>10 for rural and N>10 for urban) as well as with NGOs that are currently collaborating with MA (N>5).

As part of the participatory component to ethnography, near the end of my fieldwork members of the MA will be invited to come together and to create a short four-to-six-minute digital story with regards to an issue they want to explore further (i.e., advocacy, mobilization, collaboration). Broadly speaking, digital storytelling is a participatory video approach used to narrate stories; it draws on the power of digitized images to support the content of the story (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). My aim will be to use digital storytelling as a method to include women as collaborators in the research – giving them the agency and opportunity to identify challenges and explore potential solutions to these challenges – while also accommodating the oral histories and storytelling practices of the Beninese community.

At the time of the proposal submission I am starting my data collection in Benin (as of September 30th, 2018). I will be in Benin for seven months and will return to Canada in April 2019. The mentorship workshop is at a perfect time in my doctoral project as at the time of the CIES conference, I will have just returned from data collection and will be beginning the data analysis phase and thinking about the write up of my dissertation. The mentors will significantly benefit me in this process as I navigate the large amount of data associated with ethnographic research.

Author

• Leva Rouhani, University of Ottawa