Post-primary education for girls and shifts towards increased capabilities, empowerment, and opportunities for women: Insights from a longitudinal study in Uganda

• In Event: Gendering Higher Education

Proposal

Introduction.
This longitudinal study builds upon an ethnographic case study, conducted from August 2004 – August 2005, which investigated the challenges and opportunities for girls related to secondary school in a rural Ugandan context, as well as the ways in which education impacted their emerging identities (Jones, 2008). The 15 girls who participated in the study were at that time 15 to 18 years old. The study found that multiple factors such as lack of money for school fees, uniforms and other educational expenses, teachers’ negative attitudes towards girls’ abilities and motivation, long distances between home and school, sexual vulnerability, menstruation all posed challenges for girls’ post-primary education (Jones, 2008, 2011). Many of the challenges the girls experienced were manifestations of deeply entrenched gender discrimination which disadvantaged girls in multiple and complex ways. However, findings indicated that despite gender inequalities in the educational context, secondary schooling offered potential opportunities for girls to overcome some of the challenges and disadvantages faced by girls and women without post-primary education. This stage of the study, conducted in May 2018, explored the participants’ perceptions of the role of post-secondary education has played in their lives such as employment, relationships, parenting, societal involvement, political engagement, independence, goal-setting, personal empowerment, and gender relationships.

Theoretical perspectives. this project draws upon the women’s empowerment theoretical considerations of Naila Kabeer (1999) and Sara Longwe (1998), and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach (Sen, 1999; 2005). Kabeer’s (1999) argument that “…women’s empowerment is about the process by which those who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices acquire such an ability” (p. 435), and Longwe’s (1998), claim that empowerment “entails women increasing their level of control over the allocation of resources by identifying and ending the discriminatory practices which stand in their way” (p. 23) articulate empowerment as both agentive yet also limited by systemic inequalities. Amartya Sen’s (1999) capabilities approach defines capabilities as “…the freedom to achieve various lifestyles” (p. 75), and capabilities are intrinsically linked to functionings – “what a person is able to do or be” (Sen 2005, p.153) – as well freedoms, and agency. Sen (1999) understands capabilities and functionings as essential to agency as well as transgressing systemic gender inequalities and disadvantages, thus aligning with Kabeer and Longwe’s contention that agency must be supported in order to overcome barriers and bring about transformation. This theoretical framework will guide the investigation of this project which is concerned with the economic empowerment of women, but also about bringing about new conceptions of “normative” by supporting women to take up positions in the economy and society from which they have largely been excluded.

Methods/techniques: As with all stages in this longitudinal study, I employed a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) methodological approach that positions participants as experts of their own contexts (Chilisa & Ntseane, 2010; Elabor-Idemudia, 2002; Lather, 2004; Mama 2001) and encourages them to contribute their knowledge and expertise (economic, sociocultural, political) to the research questions under consideration, as well as to identify opportunities and think aspirationally and creatively. A FPAR approach also, importantly, requires the cultivation of a compassionate, nurturing, supportive community for the participants so that they can appreciate themselves, learn from challenges and successes, share their thoughts, and be able to reflect upon, and then consider ways to reconstruct the nature of systemic oppression and inequality (Kikooma, 2012). A mixed methods approach was used for data collection, which included semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, shadowing, multimodal workshops, and observation notes. I employed a triangulation design (Cresswell, 2008) for analysis.
Results. Participants unanimously agreed that post-primary education enabled them to cultivate capabilities - such as employment, independence, self-reliance, and respect from others, – that afforded them opportunities to re-orientate themselves with respect to ‘objects’ (Ahmed, 2006) that represent gendered assumptions and roles, which was empowering. Eleven participants had waged employment; one participant and her husband owned a primary school together; another participant was between jobs and waiting to receive employment as a “housegirl” in Dubai; and one participant was not earning an income, but providing for her family as a subsistence level farmer. The women also believed that some advances had been made towards gender equality, especially with respect to their ability to participate in the labour force and become financially independent. At the same time, however, many of the gains accrued from gender re-orientation, such as the ability to earn an income and self-reliance, also posed unanticipated risks and vulnerabilities resulting from the disruption of normative gender(ed) orientations which negatively impacted their well-being and agency freedoms. For example, they perceived opportunities for financial gain as a double-edged sword as they believed that men felt intimidated by the women’s self-sufficiency and disinclined to make spousal commitments or financial contributions to the raising of their children. In addition, there was significant range in income levels, working conditions, and types of work. Their incomes were in the general range of 200 – 300,000 Ush/month (approximately $65 – 100 US/month, given the exchange at the time). Based on a 40 hr work week (although most worked more than 40 hours per week), this amounted to about 40 – 65 cents an hour, or about $3.20 – 5.20 US per day. The World Bank (2016) defines extreme poverty as having access to about $1.90US per person per day and considering the number of dependents (children, younger siblings, even parents) that these participants were responsible for, only one lived above the extreme poverty level. Furthermore, the participants reported that most senior level positions were still occupied by men, and there existed a significant wage differential between women and men’s incomes. In addition, there were many accounts of sexual harassment and assault either in the workplace, or in the application process, and all the participants had experienced this on one or more occasions.

Conclusion and recommendations. Education can contribute to women’s increased capabilities and empowerment, but without structures (legal, institutional) to ensure that policies, laws, and social services that are committed to supporting them overcome the many inequities they face, its impact is limited.

Author

• Shelley Jones, Royal Roads University