The socio-economic status of women in central Sudan

Abstract

Sexual inequality is rooted in many early histories and cultures and has often been compounded by a modernisation process imposed from the West which has progressively lowered the status of women since benefits have accrued mainly to the male sector of society. In the developing world where general living conditions are poor and the impact of development programmes most profound, the male/female differential of opportunity and expectation is consequently widening and the conditions of women's lives becoming increasingly restrictive. In Central Sudan the level of socio-economic development is low by global standards. The particular sociocultural and socioeconomic characteristics of the population must be taken into account when attempting to describe and explain the status of women in the region. In Central Sudan, Islam is of fundamental significance because of its influence on the male/female differential in general and because the religious orientation of the population influenced the effects of development planning in this region on the lives and status of women. Central Sudan is the home of Sudan's largest development project - the Gezira Irrigation Scheme. The influence of the Scheme is investigated here using a questionnaire-based research approach and seven sample villages. These villages are situated in areas which have been involved in the Scheme for differing lengths of time - sixty, thirty and ten years. This provided a crude representation of the temporal changes in socioeconomic conditions which are attributable to the influence of the Scheme. The Gezira Scheme has intervened in the process of change over an extensive geographical and social area involving the inhabitants of the area and migrant peoples from outside. Most indigenous households received tenancies but many Western Sudanese and non-nationals, particularly Nigerians, were attracted to the Scheme as wage-labourers.