Women, Production and Capitalism

Abstract

African women have varying degrees of economic independence, often despite social orders that place them under the authority of husbands or fathers. Wives and husbands in Africa usually have separate incomes, with clearly defined financial obligations to their children, their spouse, and their spouse’s lineage. Married women generally have the right to own and acquire property that is separate from that of their husbands, and in many areas men and women are guaranteed equal rights to land use. Business transactions and earnings beyond marital obligations are considered a spouse’s private affair. Women are said to lend money to husbands at rates only slightly less usurious than those offered to others, among the Ga of Accra.