Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (2024)

Since 1995, the first author has taught two graduate courses in African Studies that have been for her among the most satisfying in her career as a university teacher: ‘Gen-der and Culture in African Societies’ and ‘Gender and Development in Africa’. Although male students normally out-number females in these classes, a function of male/female ratios at the University of Ghana as a whole, in 2004, for the first time, the class on ‘Gender and Culture’ included only male students. Also, for the first time it focused on ‘Men and Masculinities’ and was co-taught with a male faculty member from the English Department.¹ The material we used came from the Social Sciences and Humanities and included novels as well as a significant number of works by male authors. Three variables had changed from earlier years – the class composition, the course focus, and the sex of the co-instructor – and it seemed that simultaneously so did the level of engagement of the male students with the idea of transformative gender relations. However, what was most enlightening for the instructors was how the link between the shift in focus from (a) gender relations and women’s ‘oppression’ (even though we do look at these issues in very concrete ways) to (b) one on how masculinity is constructed, and sometimes operates to ‘marginalise’ women, as well as oppress some men, was associated with a much greater level of commitment among the (male) students to the equal treatment of females. In other words, we presented a shift from a typical oppressor/oppressed concep-tualisation of gender relations. My colleague and I felt that such a binary construction was overly simplistic and not particularly helpful as it reduced masculinities to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ masculinities (Robinson, 2001).²

Women's empowerment has gained a central role in developmentliterature and feminist discourses over the lastfew decades. It is a contested concept, claimed and used bydifferent groups—policymakers, development practitioners,feminist academics, grassroots activists—all promoting differentagendas. At present, feminists working in the area ofgender and development have a broad consensus on thefollowing understandings of empowerment. First, they largelyagree that in mainstream development policy and practice,empowerment has been envisaged as individual, focused onentrepreneurship and self reliance rather than challengingpower structures (Sharma, 2008; Wilson, 2008). There is anongoing critique of this understanding and a call to movebeyond this focus and emphasize that empowerment is atransformative process that is predicated upon group solidarity(Kabeer, 1994). Second, they point out that though in recentyears there has been a general shift towards recognition of theintrinsic value of empowerment even by actors such as theWorld Bank in policy discourse1 (World Bank, 2012), the focusof development actors on women's empowerment is stillinstrumentalist. Third, both feminists and some policy actorsagree that the understandings and meanings of women's empowermentare contextually based and that women's empowermenthas multiple dimensions (Aziz, Shams, & Khan, 2011;Batliwala & Pitman, 2011; Kabeer, 1999; Malhotra, Schuler, &Brender, 2002; Parpart, Rai, & Staudt, 2002).

Further, the study found that in contrast to the notion of unregulated competition typically associated with street vending, market relations among women traders in informal market spaces are marked by alliances between rival sellers that transcended religious, ethnic, linguistic, and generational divides. As well, a strict code of conduct governs market behaviour, underpinned by an ethos of cooperation and mutual assistance among rival sellers. Furthermore, market women in Accra articulate the rationale behind informal entrepreneurship in ways that align with local and national development agenda. In so doing, the market women lend legitimacy to their trade, demand accountability from local authorities, and oppose repressive practices by the state. We highlight the implications of our findings for city planning and development. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Fieldwork can be an enjoyable academic adventure producing lifelong experiences of excitement and a sense of academicaccomplishment. However, it can be an equally frustrating undertaking, especially when carried out in ‘unfamiliar’ environments.This paper adds to the growing number of studies about fieldworkers’ experiences by reflecting on the complexities involved inthe process and proffering ways to respond to them. We share our perspectives as three adult African males conductingresearch in a predominantly female space in two informal markets in Accra, Ghana. To do this, we engage with five issues relatedto fieldwork: preparing to enter the field; negotiating access; handling interviews; dealing with ethical dilemmas; and exiting thefield. We found that being male is not a barrier to conducting research in a predominantly female space. The success of ourfieldwork was a product of our ability to adapt, be creative, appreciate our inadequacies, learn quickly and also take somepractical and common-sense steps. Our hope is that the insights shared in this paper will serve as a compass for prospectivefieldworkers.