The Role of Rural Women

The life of rural women is a deeply rooted and highly sensitive issue, one that takes extensive time and energy to understand fully. You really have to get at the heart of the culture. With that said, this passage is not meant to declare anything a fact; I simply offer my opinion and share what I observed in a month's time working closely with several rural communities in the Kigezi region and learning about their life. I feel strongly that some of what I learned was too significant and powerful to be left unsaid.

Women in the Kigezi region of Uganda wear many hats. They are mothers, wives, homemakers, farmers, and household breadwinners. For the majority of families living in rural southwestern Uganda survival and wellbeing rests almost entirely upon the shoulders of women. Culturally, as it goes in the south, they are bound to a disproportionate amount of responsibilities in comparison to men; and it's not assumed that in managing all of these things they are showered with appreciation and esteem. In fact, quite the opposite. It's something you can clearly see in the tired, worn faces of female farmers.

Men feel tasks, such as farming, raising children, maintaining the house, and even income generation are the woman's responsibility and they should not dirty their hands. They are the responsible for providing land, helping to produce children, and providing or building a home for the family. Instead of contributing in even small ways men seem to occupy their time frequenting the local pub or sitting idle. The women work tirelessly every day, regularly being forced to ask the children to help in the fields instead of going to school, while the men awaited the arrival of any household income, which to the detriment of the family, would most probably be spent hastily at a local pub if he got a hold of it too quickly.

It will send your head spinning attempting to understand what rural men are doing with their time while the women are clearly overburdened and families are struggling to survive. The unfortunate answer, and this came from several different people, is that most men are prone to idleness. This, in turn, allows for plenty of time spent drinking. I'm saddened to say that the absence of alcohol on a man's breath, and occasionally women, in rural communities was a rarity. The bottle had a strong influence in the lives of these rural folk and was often a precursor to other difficulties plaguing the community, such as domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition.

Despite having to single handedly manage a family and create a productive life, women are dependent upon men for much of their rights and privileges. This includes bearing children-the more children a woman produces, especially boys, the more she is valued; access to land (ownership lies with men); and having a family home. Without marriage, a woman cannot assert herself fully as deemed appropriate by society, and without access to land she is often left working as hired labor on other women's plots for a meager amount of money, barely able to survive. Owning a home and land signifies that you are not poor.

To further add to the strain of being a female farmer in southwestern Uganda, infidelity is a common occurrence in partnerships and polygamy still has its place within Ugandan culture. Also, as soon as a woman leaves her family home to create a life with her husband, she is seldom welcomed back even despite threatening circumstances in the household, such as domestic abuse.

Women are, in large part, at the mercy of their husbands.

When health is threatened

I remember vividly visiting a Health Centre II in Ibumba, learning about health within the community and challenges associated with working at a lower tier health center, from a lovely but noticeably tired and frustrated nurse named Betty. She welcomed our questions and was eager to provide thorough answers. It seemed she was relieved that someone was willing to listen and allow her to vent.

After hearing the staggering numbers of rural women who choose or have no choice but to give birth inside their homes, I found myself really wanting to understand what this might be like for a woman. I imagine it's nerve-racking enough to give birth under normal circumstances-my normal that is-let alone inside a small, dark, dusty, sometimes windowless home.

Nurse Betty painted a very grim, but honest, picture for us. The experience of delivering at home is frightening, painful, risky, and lonely. Even women who know nothing else but delivering inside the walls of their homes, deal with these emotions to a certain extent.

From left: Trina, Nurse Betty & Lilian inside Ibumba's Health Centre II

Dr. Geoffrey, KIHEFO's Founder and Executive Director, said that roughly 70% of women do not deliver in the hospital. This is one of KIHEFO's biggest challenges, he said. Of recent, widespread sensitization has allowed women to recognize the importance of antenatal care and if they can't manage to transport themselves into Kabale-town for a visit, they can utilize services at a local health center within their community. Even traditional birth attendants have taken to encouraging women to seek antenatal care at medical facilities.

So why aren't women giving birth in the hospital?

There are a number of proposed reasons why. For starters, lack of education and know how is rampant within rural Uganda. Not knowing can then breed fear. Women share stories about their experience in the hospital, or lack there of, and fear can spread like wildfire throughout the community. To add, men provide a strong barrier. They demand that their pregnant wives remain home and continue work in the fields or at home. To discourage them from going and to wait until delivery is imminent, Nurse Betty reveals that men will accuse their wives of being weak for seeking such luxurious care.

Of course such intense words are not spoken to every rural woman, but it's not uncommon to hear similar forms of verbal abuse.

Women find themselves in this situation with very little liberty to choose otherwise. If their husband requests sex, it's in their best interest to oblige. If he is resistant to any method of family planning, regardless if she has suggested it in order to avoid another pregnancy, even still she should say yes. Even the mere suggestion of family planning or refusal to have sex are grounds for a husband to accuse his wife of cheating. And if he doesn't already have alternate wives, the odds are strong that he is, or has been, unfaithful. Such behavior is well known within the Bakiga culture.

Women are trapped. This renders them a very easy target for contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as becoming a victim of domestic violence, for having the audacity to claim rights over their own body.

The dynamics between men and women impact children greatly. If mothers are HIV+ and unaware or have not sought out proper antenatal care, their newborn can contract HIV. Also, If household income is being spent on alcohol then school fees cannot be paid and whether crop yields are high or low, women may be forced to sell to generate income. Malnutrition does not take long to follow.

Widow & Orphan's Association of Ibumba: an empowered women's group

Most rural women are crippled by fear of reprisal if they take a stand against the numerous injustices that torment their lives. There is so little opportunity for them to say no.

Several members of the Women & Orphans Association

The women of Ibumba, those belonging to the Widow and Orphan's Association, represent a small, yet growing movement of women (and some forward thinking men) who have taken great risks to ensure their voice is heard. They are fighting for their rights as farmers-seeking legal protection over land and home ownership to better secure their livelihoods and a more just market exchange system-and their rights as women-to claim ownership over their bodies.

The Widow and Orphan's Association began as a desperate attempt to slow the rapid onset of HIV/AIDS in Ibumba. The community had taken a hard hit. What initially served as an effective community effort to deliver education and adequate health services, evolved into a support group to generate savings that members could tap into responsibly and a group that would fight back as one.

I spent a couple afternoons with members of this group, listening in on interviews detailing life as a female farmer and helped perform a demonstration on ways to grow in nontraditional spaces. In a culture that is not always welcoming to new ideas, these women were eager to learn and willing to open up their minds and try new things if it meant improving overall well-being. There was a definitive difference in the way they carried themselves compared to other rural women I had met throughout the Kigezi region. Although the wheels of their struggle were only just beginning to turn, this exemplary community group beamed with empowerment.

It filled me with so much hope for women of Uganda.