Women-Headed Households and Development

Abstract

This chapter brings the focus onto developing countries and synthesises a range of factors identified in household studies as precipitating or inhibiting the formation of female-headed households in the South. The factors are discussed under four main headings: demographic, economic, legalinstitutional and socio-cultural, and are treated as far as possible as ‘Variables’ or ‘themes’ in their own right. This thematic approach is helpful in a number of ways. First, female household heads exist everywhere and thinking across countries not only reminds us that we are dealing with a phenomenon of global as well as regional significance but helps to guard against tendencies to consign women-headed households to the category of ‘one-off’ or anomalous group. Second, it assists in avoiding the repetition involved in considering individual country studies in turn. Third, a thematic approach permits the inclusion of insights from studies where female headship is an element but not the central focus of analysis. Fourth, by showing where in the developing world different factors have been identified as important, we are still able to see which influences might be more consistently linked with female headship than others. Finally, a review of this nature may also act as a ‘checklist’ of factors or ‘entry points’ for more detailed comparative research on the subject. Indeed, while there is no doubt as to relevance of in-depth holistic analyses of individual countries for understanding diversity and dynamics in female headship in the developing world, observations synthesised from a range of studies give an idea of the kinds of factors that merit at least preliminary examination.