Advertisement
Check these out next
Hawking against hegemony: Fighting patriarchy through informal milk market participation in central Kenya
Nov. 27, 2018•0 likes•174 views
2 likes
Be the first to like this
Show More
views
Total views
0
On Slideshare
0
From embeds
0
Number of embeds
0
Download to read offline
Report
Science
Presented by Katie Tavenner, Tarangini Saxena and Todd Crane at the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research Annual Scientific Conference and Capacity Development Workshop, ILRI, Addis Ababa, 25-28 September 2018
ILRIFollow
-- at ILRIAdvertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Recommended
Tavenner genderckmtraining
Hawking against hegemony: Fighting patriarchy through informal milk market pa...CGIAR
Gender dynamics in modern agricultural value chainsCGIAR
Women’s participation in the dairy value chain in Tanzania and KenyaILRI
Gender and livestock value chains in Kenya and TanzaniaILRI
Reinforcing participation of women in dairy production and marketing in TanzaniaILRI
Hawking against hegemony: Fighting patriarchy through informal milk market participation in central Kenya
- Hawking Against Hegemony Fighting patriarchy through informal milk market participation in central Kenya Katie Tavenner, Tarangini Saxena and Todd Crane CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research Annual Scientific Conference and Capacity Development Workshop ILRI, Addis Ababa, 25-28 September 2018
- Kenyan Dairy Sector • ↑ small holder production, ↓ efficiency • Well-organized formal sector, but… • ~85% of milk stays in informal economy • Highly reliant on women’s unpaid labor
- Nationally Determined Contributions • Kenya: 30% reduction vs. business as usual • 75% GHGs from land use, mostly livestock • Low-emission dairy development (LEDD)? Kenya Nationally Determined Contribution 2015
- LEDD in Kenya • Intensification – Management practices and technologies to improve efficiency and productivity • Commercialization – Formal economic networks and incentives stimulate intensification
- Research Question & Theory • Does participation in informal milk markets allow women to circumvent the patriarchal constraints present in the formal dairy sector? • Hegemonic masculinity, pariah femininity (Schippers 2007)
- Research Design, Site, Methods • Analysis of two key informal market practices – Selling evening milk to “hawkers” – Working in the informal sector as intermediaries, shopkeepers and hawkers • Meru and Nakuru Counties, central Kenya • Mixed qualitative methods – Key informants interviews (55) – Focused group discussions (21) – Participant observation
- Formal Markets and Gender • Gender ideologies and norms ascribe cattle, milk and commercial enterprise as masculine • Materialization in formal market practices – Patriarchal household headship – Male dominated leadership in formal organizations – Bulk payments • (Tavenner and Crane 2018)
- Selling Evening Milk to Hawkers • Morning vs. evening milk • Contestation over evening milk sales increasing under commercialization Even if you sell evening milk to a neighbor, you’ll have to report the money you receive to your husband…but not all of it! (Young woman, farmer, FGD, Meru)
- Women Working in Informal Sector • Intermediaries, purchasing milk at farm gates and selling direct to restaurants and shops • Milk bar operators • Night time hawkersThose hawkers are dirty people – they’re not trustworthy. (Young woman, farmer, FGD, Meru)
- Discussion • Patriarchal constraints lifted in informal markets – Bypassing patriarchal customs of cattle ownership and uncompensated household labor – Circumventing patriarchal bureaucracy of formal dairy market networks – Avoiding threats to patriarchal norms of headship by obscuring womens’ financial gains • Qualitative research on gender norms and practices reveals dimensions that sex
- Implications for LEDD • LEDD initiatives likely to compound hegemonic gender power relations – Gender safeguards? – Interventions focusing on gender norms? – Measure social outcomes alongside GHG emissions? • Tradeoffs analyses between – Social and environmental targets? – Socioeconomic outcomes?
- References • Schippers, M. (2007). Recovering the feminine other: Masculinity, femininity, and gender hegemony. Theory and society, 36(1), 85-102. • Tavenner, K., & T. A. Crane (2018). Gender power in Kenyan dairy: Cows, commodities, and commercialization. Agriculture and Human Values, 35(3), 701-715
- Questions, comments, concerns, critiques….
- The presentation has a Creative Commons license. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI. better lives through livestock ilri.org
Editor's Notes
- Gender and intensification Intensification disenfranchises women from dairy Cattle as fundamentally masculine commodities Formal market relationships as masculine space Informal markets better enable women’s benefit
- The Kenyan intensified dairy system is a site of hegemonic masculine practice! (DEFINE WHAT THIS MEANS) This creates patriarchal constraints for women. These patterns were consistent across different ethnic groups. While Kalenjin masculinity was more deeply connected to cattle keeping than Kikuyu masculine identity, dairy as a business/formal enterprise made the proceeds from formal market participation masculinized. Thus, the umbrella gender norms of masculinized headship mean that as milk becomes commercialized and of greater value to the household, associated income becomes men’s
- The Kenyan intensified dairy system is a site of hegemonic masculine practice! (DEFINE WHAT THIS MEANS) This creates patriarchal constraints for women. These patterns were consistent across different ethnic groups. While Kalenjin masculinity was more deeply connected to cattle keeping than Kikuyu masculine identity, dairy as a business/formal enterprise made the proceeds from formal market participation masculinized. Thus, the umbrella gender norms of masculinized headship mean that as milk becomes commercialized and of greater value to the household, associated income becomes men’s
- Selling evening milk to a hawker and concealing some of the income from the household head “Women can use money for the household, but never for herself!” (Middle aged woman, dairy farmer, FGD, Meru) Boundaries of acceptable feminine market behavior blurring as evening milk sales garner more money as cows increase productivity from intensification practices
- These activities are caught between hegemonic and pariah femininities – these are what I call, “Contested femininities”. Perception that “hawking” as a profession is “dirty work” – hawkers can be unscrupulous, leave without paying their suppliers, & adulterate their milk with peroxides (all goes against traditional gender norms for women) Hawking on the streets at night is dangerous and illegal work. Hawkers can be fined and even arrested for non-compliance with milk hygiene certification rules …constraints to women working in the informal sector? Dangerous jobs (working after dark/early morning to collect milk), most women don’t ride motorcycles which is the preferred mode of transport for milk pick-ups,
- The first strategy of selling evening milk to a hawker would be considered ‘hegemonic’ until the point whereby the milk income becomes large enough to be perceived as “real income”. That’s when contestation really begins around who has access to that source of income. The second strategy of working in the informal sector presents more of a direct challenge to hegemonic masculinity – however, this does depend on the arrangement at the household level, ethnicity, etc.
- Gendered preferences for engagement in informal versus formal milk markets reflect differential ability to benefit from them. In Kenya, married women are likely to lose control over dairy income and decision-making when milk is marketed to formal channels, thus they often opt to sell milk through informal arrangements. Women selling to or working in the informal sector as vendors (“milk hawkers”) are circumventing male-dominated formal structures and increasing their access to income. Because low emissions dairy development (LEDD) has been pursued only through the formal milk marketing sector, this creates a dilemma for reifying existing power structures in terms of gendered access to dairy income. Both formal and informal market participation provide important avenues towards agency and prosperity for women and their families. Understanding the social trade-offs in market participation for both is necessary to inform gender inclusive low emissions dairy development strategies.
- These activities are caught between hegemonic and pariah femininities – these are what I call, “Contested femininities”. Perception that “hawking” as a profession is “dirty work” – hawkers can be unscrupulous, leave without paying their suppliers, & adulterate their milk with peroxides (all goes against traditional gender norms for women) Hawking on the streets at night is dangerous and illegal work. Hawkers can be fined and even arrested for non-compliance with milk hygiene certification rules …constraints to women working in the informal sector? Dangerous jobs (working after dark/early morning to collect milk), most women don’t ride motorcycles which is the preferred mode of transport for milk pick-ups,
Advertisement