Gender Roles In Sub-Saharan Africa

Gender roles are the set of behavioral and social norms deemed socially acceptable for an individual belonging to a particular sex to participate in (Booysen, 2010). There are no universal gender roles in a continent; however, the common trends depicted can help in explaining this concept. In America, women participate in income generation of the family; there has been a significant shift from the time when one spouse was responsible for the family income. Currently, most American homes are dual income families; this shift arose in the 1960s and 1970s after the rise of feminism resulting to an influx of women in the workforce. Before this, women were tasked with home matters while men worked and earned money.
In addition to the above, the United States displays …show more content…
Polygamy and female genital mutilation are still common in most of the countries especially in the rural parts of the country. In addition to these problems, African women, especially in the North African, face a set of obstacles that prevent them from enjoying the full range of legal, economic, civil, and political rights (Simonen, 2009). There is a low number of female students enrolled in academic institutions in African countries as compared with their male counterparts. One of the contributing factors of this situation is the high rate of poverty. The female population is compromised since most societies will prefer to educate the boy child as opposed to the girl child (Simonen, 2009).
However, women in sub-Sahara Africa are being empowered through national gender policies and specific legislations that have been drafted to ensure that female population is represented in government. These gender policies advocate for gender equality and the empowerment of women to increase the number of opportunities for health, employment, and their social, economic