Séance poster : Genre et population (1)

Discrimination against women remains one of the major barriers to women’s full participation in the development of their nations, although they make up more than half of the population in most developing countries. In Benin, like everywhere in Africa, often discriminatory customs and traditional values serve as a pretext to refuse women improvement in their status and, as a result, any increase in their power to act at the societal level. However, Benin has national policy documents on respecting gender and a legislative framework relatively favourable to gender equality. This article is taken from an analytical study that identified gender-specific discriminatory provisions and gaps as regards gender equality in the national legislations of ECOWAS member states, including Benin. It shows the specificities of Beninese society in terms of gender inequality, but also the legal measures taken to respect gender.

In Lomé, women today face numerous difficulties in reconciling their domestic role and their economic one. This communication uses data from the Survey on the family in Togo [Enquête sur la famille au Togo]" (2000) and from the survey on "Economic activities, resource sharing and the coverage of expenses within urban households [Activités économiques, partage des ressources et prise en charge des dépenses au sein des ménages urbains]" (2012) to establish the factors that explain these role conflicts experienced by these women. The variable to be explained is the ECO/DOM ratio (number of hours that women devote to economic activities versus the number that they devote to domestic tasks) and the principal explanatory variables are: individual characteristics, family environment variables, and economic environment variables. A statistical re-exploitation of the files from these surveys will be performed, and regression analyses used. The expected result is for the communication to make it possible to establish the link between the ECO/DOM ratio and the chosen explanatory variables. Furthermore, it will lead to suggestions to be addressed to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Women's Advancement concerning the infrastructure to be used to provide support in relation to women's increasingly massive entry onto the labor market.

This study analyzes the influence of domestic work on girls' school performance using statistical and econometric tools. It emerges that almost the same proportion of girl pupils as girls who are not enrolled in school participate in domestic tasks (82.3% and 83%). The influence of domestic work on girls' school performance is significant and negative. Thus, the greater the number of hours of domestic work, the higher the risk that a girl will repeat a grade. The explanation of this relationship could be that domestic work is a cause of fatigue, anxiety, lateness and lack of study time. Possible actions to resolve this problem include awareness-raising for parents, boarding school systems for girls, and study sessions at school on non-workdays. The growth of drinkable water infrastructure, especially in rural areas, could also reduce girls' domestic workload and consequently improve their school results.

Domestic violence takes various forms in Africa, which vary from context to context and country to country. In societies where patrilineal filiation still dominates, as in Benin, hierarchical relationships encourage inequality and the exclusion of women from decision-making processes. However, women’s emancipation, the economic crisis, high male mortality and migration are redefining social relationships and family roles. Gender discrimination nevertheless persists in many countries. The emergence of new family models is having an impact on gender relations and the traditional status of women. This paper analyses current changes in gender relations between spouses. It attempts to verify the proportion of opinions in favour of domestic violence and trends in domestic violence, by using data from the last three Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in Benin.

In the past, North African women, excluded from gainful employment and public areas, often confined to the home, had no alternatives to marriage and reproduction. The education girls received from older women was intended to perpetuate this state of affairs. The social and religious order, based on values such as honour, demanded among other things the repression of female sexuality outside marriage. The result was a matrimonial system based on early marriage without the consent of the partners. Although polygamy was limited, it was quite usual and repudiation was the main form of divorce. Demographic changes over the last three decades have challenged this centuries-old order. Fertility has been divided by three and is now close to 2.1 children per woman. The longer period spent by young women unmarried is undermining family organisation and relations. This type of change is impossible without a radical overhaul of the traditional structures of society and the decline of certain conservative values. The reason is that they raise the basic question of the place and role of women in these societies.

Today the question of gender and employment is at the heart of political preoccupations both at the local and the global levels. However, this statistical assessment can hide the reality of the phenomenon of under-employment in Algeria, and the imbalance between women's and men's employment which is a source of segregation and sometimes conflict between them. It must be emphasized that women and men contribute to supporting the household and the collectivity, but the nature and value attributed to their work tend to be different. Despite efforts undertaken by the state, the gap between men and women in terms of employment remains very large, with the proportion of women remaining very small, and their presence in the world of work very limited. What is the situation with respect to gender and employment in Algeria? We will answer this question through data from the Algerian national survey of 2009, and case studies.