NEGOTIATING SPACE:
Sudanese Women’s access to Vocational Education & Employment
Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa
Cover photography: Ahmad Mahmoud Design by: Marce Digital
Published February 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented including copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa P.O. Box 2793 Kampala – Uganda www.sihanet.org
©SIHA Network 2020
The information used in this report was collected, compiled and written by SIHA Network affiliated researcher, Sarah Nugdalla in collaboration with SIHA Network staff members in early 2020.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 5 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 7 LANDSCAPE........................................................................................................................................ 9 SUDANESE LABOR LAW........................................................................................................ 11 BACKGROUND ON BGS.......................................................................................................... 13 GENDER, VOCATIONAL TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT & RESISTANCE........................................ 15 GENDER TRAVELS.................................................................................................................. 16 TRANSITIONING INTO EMPLOYMENT............................................................................... 18 CHALLENGES TO WOMEN’S SAFETY IN NON-TRADITIONAL WORKSPACES............... 20 RESHAPING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENT................. 23 SHIFTING PERCEPTIONS...................................................................................................... 23 OVERCOMING OBSTACLES, CHANGING THE NARRATIVE.............................................. 25 MAINTAINING MOMENTUM, SECURING FEMINIST FUTURES...................................... 26 CONCLUDING REMARKS ................................................................................................................ 28 RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................................... 29 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................... 30
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ABSTRACT Drawing on findings from the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa’s (SIHA Network) Breaking Gender Stereotypes Project Phase II (BGS II), this paper explores urban poor women’s access to opportunities in vocational training and subsequent employment in Greater Khartoum, Sudan. This exploration was carried out through an examination of the interconnected influences of the state, family, socio-religious and cultural norms, and expectations. Analyzing the social, cultural and legal makeup of Khartoum highlights how environmental factors figure into women’s access to diverse employment. The dynamics hindering women’s access to vocational training and employment primarily stem from the Islamist regime’s nation-building project. By looking at the multidimensional oppression directed at women from marginalized regions of Sudan, this report focuses on the interplay of gender, race, and class, and how they affect women’s access to non-traditional employment in Sudan. This report maintains that women participants represent a challenge to gender and cultural expectations about women’s roles in society. The vocational sector has been resistant to women but by moving into this field, women have shattered the ceiling that restricted them. There have been recent shifts in perceptions. As women gain access to education and have greater representation in traditionally male-oriented workspaces, patriarchal beliefs pertaining to women’s ‘correct’ place in society are being erased.
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INTRODUCTION In the months following the powerful revolution of 2019 that toppled the Islamist regime, the city of Khartoum underwent significant changes, and there was a sense of optimism in the capital. One of the chief changes was the repeal of Khartoum’s Public Order Laws, which guaranteed a step forward in the protection of women from the brutality of state violence. However, the deep detrimental impact of the Islamist government cannot be easily reversed simply by its removal and therefore, the issues underpinning the Islamist government must be addressed. Throughout the years of the Islamist regime, women experienced heightened surveillance while out in public, which resulted in their inability to move about freely. The policing of women in the public sphere became normalized through the public order laws that controlled women’s behavior and dress. The increased surveillance of women by the state resulted in a considerable shift in women’s mobility in the public sphere. In terms of employment, this translated into an increase in occupational segregation. That is not to say that segregation in employment did not exist prior to the Islamist government, but rather sheds light on how this divide was intensified by the power of the Islamist regime. Professions were delineated into distinct economic sectors for men and women. Due to the defined boundaries of women’s employment, gender stereotypes have sadly, been maintained. In this context, stereotypes within the laws are solidified to perpetuate the belief that the private sphere is the only legitimate space for women. Following this framework, women are guided toward ‘soft’ employment that often represents an extension of their domestic activities. It is important to acknowledge how distinct groups of Sudanese women experience these stereotypes in the labor market differently. As a result of prolonged civil conflict, poverty, and natural disaster, a substantial part of the rural Sudanese population have moved to urban centers, fuelling the rapidly growing class of urban poor who work in the informal sector. While displaced men dominate construction work, public transport jobs, and manual work, displaced women take on more precarious forms of self-employment that expose them to greater risks, including harassment from authorities. This has created a pipeline for displaced and marginalized women to enter informal and precarious forms of self-employment that are often an extension of their domestic, unpaid labor. Women in the informal sector face immeasurable challenges. In the face of resistance and social pressure to perform stereotypically feminine jobs, women are forced to negotiate their participation in the informal sector. However, despite the challenges facing Sudanese women socially and politically, women have
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Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa
Negotiating Space: Sudanese Women’s access to Vocational Education & Employment
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