Structures of Opportunity and Structures of Constraint
usinesses and better financial management as central to these gains. Women, for b instance, said they can move up the ladder by opening their “own small businesses selling food, making and selling sweets, selling second-hand clothes, and cleaning streets.” These women see themselves as empowered and “willing to push forward” to contribute to their families’ well-being during the difficult times. Yet local opinions about women’s dual roles appear to be even more contested in Hato Mayor than in Floresti District. The women’s focus groups support working mothers and their attempts to reconcile productive and reproductive demands, but they were also aware of the opinion this generates in the community. When a working mother leaves her children, people think and say that she is going “to prostitute herself.” Moreover, women reported discrimination and physical risk at their jobs: “Women get paid less for more work and they get abused.” And they do not dare work at night due to unsafe streets. In their focus groups, the men were clearly more conservative than the women. Despite the women’s changing roles, men made plain that gender differences should remain intact and women should not go after or take male jobs, for instance, working construction and driving motorcycle taxis. Younger men were as conservative as older men and echoed these negative views.
When Choices Grow Chapter 4 looked at Jaipur (Odisha), India, a rapidly urbanizing town, and Malangachilima, Tanzania, a village moving into commercial agriculture. These two communities were in the midst of particularly fast change, and both women’s and men’s focus groups presented clear evidence of a strong relaxation of gender norms for women’s public roles. Jaipur and Malangachilima give us a valuable look at how quickly women’s roles can sometimes change, when local opportunity structures support their economic initiatives. In most other sample communities with dynamic local economies, however, gender norms are more resistant and do not shift as quickly. In Umlazi township B, a community of 3,000 outside Durban, South Africa, a local official interviewed for the study estimated that perhaps 80 percent of the women currently work outside the home, mainly as teachers and nurses, and some in offices, retail, or the police. Just 10 years ago, few women earned any income at all. “Women are no longer regarded as just housewives,” a young woman remarked, pointing to a shift in the predominant association of women with their domestic role. In this suburb of Durban, women generally have more education than men, with young women attaining the highest levels. Women in Umlazi township B feel empowered; they placed 75 percent of the women in their community at the top of their ladder and characterized them as being “powerful women who can afford anything. They own vehicles and houses. They are single parents and are independent. They do not wait for men to do things for them. They send their children to university. They have lots of money. They have everything they need and can eat whatever they feel like eating.” Young women here do not see themselves as bound by any restrictions when it comes to finding a job: “Nothing [prevents us from getting a good job]. On Norms and Agency • http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-9862-3
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