Land, Labor and Gender in Rural Southern Ghana: A Case Study of Cocoa Producing Villages

Abstract

This paper highlights disparities between men and women and among women in cocoa production in southern Ghana. Gender disparity is revealed through the analysis of unequal distribution of access to and control over land and labor. It is argued that such disparity is a major cause of uneven power relations between wife and husband, and that labor exchange between the two is an outcome of such inequalities within the household. Differences within the category “women” are also emphasized. Factors affecting such differences are women's marital status, age, degree of labor contribution to husbands' farms, and allocation of land rights within households. More broadly, the paper reemphasizes the important but sometimes neglected fact that “women” are not a homogeneous category. By further disaggregating the data and the analytical category to the level of individual members of the household, the paper tries to overcome the shortcomings of oversimplified gender analysis.