Gender Equality in Sub Sahara Africa



Gender Equality in Sub Sahara Africa

Introduction

Gender inequality has been recognized by researchers in the social sciences and humanities by the emergence of the concept of gender in 1980 as the basis for feminist concept (Joan Scott). Conceptualizing gender shed light on the social construction of masculinity and femininity as oppositional categories with unequal social value. From how men and women, and girls and boys, differ from each other has been the focus of much study in developmental psychology. Numerous newspaper and magazines articles on the topic of gender differences attest to their importance outside developmental psychology as well. Gender refers to the societal, social, and behavioral ways that are associated with being male or female. The problem of gender inequality has sustained the women suppression worldwide and has also unfortunately made an impact on Sub Sahara Africa with a great magnitude.

Sub Sahara Africa

Sub-Sahara Africa is the name of the African continent, situated south of the desert Sahara. This part of Africa is inhabited predominantly by the Negroid peoples (as opposed to Caucasians in North Africa), which was the basis for its earlier name of "Black Africa". Sub-Sahara Africa is generally divided into four sub-areas known under the names:

Southern Africa

Central Africa

East Africa

West Africa

Geographic Summary

As a geographical term Sub-Sahara Africa is referred to the areas of the African continents which fall under the south of the Sahara. According to the political definition of the Sub-Sahara Africa cover the entire African countries that are partially or fully situated in the south of the Sahara. It distinguishes with the North Africa that is considered as the part of the world of Arab (Klasen & Lamanna, 2003). The transitional zone is the Sahel which is amongst the tropical savanna (Sudan) and the Sahara and the forest savanna mosaic to the south. Mauritania, Djibouti and Somalia are geographically the parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, however are part of the Arab world as well.

According to modern political division of Sub-Saharan Africa includes 49 countries. These 49 countries are Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Southern Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Republic of South Africa, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tanzania Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gabon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Comoros, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Burundi, Cameroon, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Angola and Benin (Eagly & Karau , 2002).

Brief Summary of the Problem

In sub-Saharan Africa, countries of South Asia and the Arab States have the highest rates of gender inequality. At the same time the most important factor is reproductive health. This is especially true for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In most countries for which data are available, women represent less than one third of science students but more than two thirds of students humanities, social sciences and in fields health-related. Reducing the gender gap in education does is not automatically translate into equality ...