Introduction to the movie Asante Market Women: Gender, Society & The Ideology of the Two Spheres

What is the Domestic/Public Model

• also called the Ideology of the Two Spheres

• argues that in some societies, the traits, activities, & roles “assigned” to masculinity and femininity tend to fall into two different “spheres” → the Public and the Private sphere

• In some societies, men tend to be associated with the Public Sphere

• In some societies, women tend to be associated with the Domestic Sphere

Domestic Sphere

• Denoted the physical location & types of activities that take place in association with the home

• Household Labour: Unpaid tasks performed to satisfy the needs of family members or to maintain the home and family possessions

• Household Labour does not get included in GDP (gross domestic product = the market value of all of the goods and services produced in that country)

• In the domestic/public model, the Domestic Sphere is Gendered Feminine

Pubic Sphere

• Public domain includes ‘extra-domestic’ activities, activities that take place beyond the localized household unit, such as political and economic activities

• Paid Labour = “Productive” tasks according to United Nations System of National Accounts = paid labour gets included in the GDP (gross domestic product) = the market value of all of the goods and services in that country

• In the Domestic/Public Model, the Public Sphere is gendered masculine

• These tasks tend to be more highly valued/considered higher status/more important than tasks that take place in the domestic sphere > gender asymmetry

Why is the Domestic Sphere a womens orientation?

• It is structurally and culturally constructed

• categories of ‘woman’ and ‘mother’ overlap in western civilization

• Rosaldo argues that when men are freed from childcare responsibilities in a society they are able to move into the public world, in a way that women can’t: “so men are free to form those broader associations that we cann ‘society’, universalistic systems of order, meaning and commitment.” 

A key point of the domestic/public model

• in the original model, the Domestic/Public split was assumed to be universal. Rosaldo → pervasive universal [sexual] asymmetry'

• however this pervasive universal asymmetry does not exist across all societies

T/F?: Not all societies operate with the same Public/Private spheres

True

Yoruba Woman’s Participation in & Control of the Market

• Yoruba women participate in the market as traders (women make up the majority of traders in many Nigerian markets)

• Women trade to make money to support their children/families

• “to earn respect, fame and prowess)

• Powerful women control the market as heads of trading guilds

• Provides opportunities to interact with and negotiate with political authorities

• Women tend to start their careers as traders with help from husbands &/or marriage through gifts (bride price)

• Women increased their trade business as they increased the number of children they had

Asante Market Women

• in Kumasi, Ghana

• Women control the produce sections through “Queen Mothers” (Oba)

• Different produce sections have different Queen Mothers

• Generally elected, but some gain their position (Oba) through influence → illustrates the connections between the market and political structures in society

Matrilineal Society

• In this society, one’s descent group would consist of all members related to a person through connection with one’s mother

• doesn’t include: a woman’s father and husband (or a man’s father and wife)

Consanguinity

relationships by blood; the people to who you are related by blood

• asante women’s relationships are focused around this

• As mothers and daughters, Asante women can be the recipients of deference and the wielders of power and authority

Conjugality

Relationship by marriage; he relationship between husband and wife

• north american relationships are focused around this

• remember among the Asante, one’s husband or wife is not included in your descent system/inheritance