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FINAL DRAFT:
Gender Equality in the Ivory Coast
Overview
There are multiple factors which contribute to gender equality. The history of the Ivory Coast still influences gender inequality in the country A huge factor which also pushes the nation back to be a strong economic player is the lack of education especially for women. It starts from primary education up to higher level education were girls are obvious disadvantaged compared to boys. Arranged marriages for girls who are often under the age of 18 and lack of knowledge about laws and their rights also promote gender inequality.
Due to the Ivorian Civil War gender based violence has increased especially during and after this period of time.A lot Ivorian women have to deal with domestic violence. Discussion groups have been created to address the issues and spread attention.Furthermore a lot of global movements and campaigns have been invented to promote gender parity in Cote d’Ivoire.
Background
The Ivory Coast is one of the worlds top producer when it comes to cacao and cashews. The majority of the countries population sustains through agriculture but only 18% percent of farmland belongs to women. Because of the social political crises which ended in 2011 the country still struggles with discrimination towards women. According to a recent world bank report (August 6, 2013) Ivorian women often don’t have access to basic social services. One of the reasons are conventional prejudices which were taken over from the colonialist French. According to Clignet the history of Ivorian society has a huge impact on how women are viewed nowadays. The relationship towards France and the common past influenced Ivorian tradition and cultural also referred to women.
Education
The disadvantage of girls in terms of education is presented through Statistics published in 2015 by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. It shows that 74.7% of girls and 83.7% of boys were enrolled in primary level schools. But the gross enrollment rate for other levels like secondary level education states that it were only 36.6% girls compared to 51% of boys. In higher education the enrollment rates sink from 11.2% of enrolled male students opposed to just 7.3% of females. According to Grisay girls are already interior to boys when it comes to primary education like learning and speaking French. It also has to do with certain cultural origins that follow the habit that girls education is not as important as the education for boys. For that reason girls participate school way less than boys or leave school earlier. Therefore girls have less opportunities to learn languages like french. The educational stages of girls are also impacted by the situation of the family itself. A lot of girls leave the circle of the family less than boys so possibilities to speak and practice language decrease automatically. Because of that fathers also tend to communicate more with their sons and train them to speak French.
Moreover classes in the Ivory Coast consist mainly of oral participation. Because girls are told to hold themselves back and try not to stand out also culturally, female students developed a passive attitude overtime and started to speak less in class. This also contributed to the fact that women are disadvantaged in the Ivorian education system.
Women and the law
Two main tribes the Dioula and Bété show differences regarding womens knowledge of legal matters. The majority of Dioula women are not really informed about existing rights for women compared to Bété women who are more aware and therefore use the advantages if possible. There are multiple factors which play along the different education in terms of religion, ethnicity, engagement in working field and politics. Between 1964-1982 a lot of Ivorian women did not know that polygamy was against the law. The Bété women are nowadays less interested in polygynous engagements compared to the Dioula. This has also to do with the fact that Béte are more aware of the laws, because of contact to catholic missions. Dioula women are muslims and tend to be more traditional. Due to lack of education Dioula females make less use of the laws of 1964 while the Bété women seem more engaged in the new civil law system and make more use of it.
Child Marriage
According to UNFPA 48% of women between 20 and 24 in the Ivory coast do not gain education and 27% who had access to primary education were married or in union aged 18 compared to 9% of women who had secondary education or higher. More than on-third of Ivorian girls are forced into marriage before the age of 18. Especially for poor households the bride price is an important source of income. There are recently more initiatives to end child marriage, among others the African Union campaign launched by the Ivory Coast on 5th December 2017.
Violence
Wars like the Ivorian Civil War (2002 and 2007) increased Gender based violence in the country. During war or social political crisis more violent actions have been enforced. Primarily forms of sexual violence for example rape have been repeatedly reported during wartimes. Gender Based violence was and is a big issue in the Ivory Coast. Parts in the country have been locations for women and child-trafficking who were forced labor and sexual exploitation. As source and transit of these events Ivorian women faced a lot of different forms of physical violence. A lot of the violence just like sexual violence or physical violence like dragging, kicking ecetera has been implemented by intimate partners and non-partners. To intervent gender based violence there have been discussion groups about gender norms which focus on reducing several forms of intimate partner violence. To be successful in the reduction of violence against women the nation has to increase the policies and attention regarding GBV. This emphasis would make clear that the disruption of routine in lives through violence and the effect on family structures influence the Ivorian life drastically. Examples for disruption could be no ability of gathering foodstuffs or receiving medical attention.
Economy
A worldbank report from July 24, 2017 states that the economic situation of the Ivory Coast could improve extremely if the state changes disciminational procedures against women and shows changes in gender parity in general. According to the World Bank the Ivorian economic system could grow and gain of $6 billion to $8 billion dollar. It says that the country could be a middle-income country. But for this success the Ivorian society needs better educated women, who are part of political institutions, have more access to healthcare and chances of influence in businesses and families. If these aspects improve and women gain more rights in the society it could bring great changes to the country. The elimination of females in the workforce and politics do not lead to positive development in the economy. As the country which had the second fastest growing GDP rate in Africa in 2016 the potential to gain and grow more efficiently is given. A lot of nations, and the Ivory Coast as an example lack of economic growth because of gender based discrimination. Jaques Morisset, World Bank Chief Economist for the Côte d’Ivoire introduces a three-fold approach to promote gender parity. His approach consists of a proactive policy for reducing ineuqalities, especially in fields like education. The results should create female champions, who are promoting the ideas and influence families and labor markets through good management of adjustments costs.
Women's Movement
According to UN-women at the end of November 2018 there has been a 16 days campaign in the Ivory Coast where people were active against Gender-Based Violence. The campaign was part of the HeForShe global solidaritz movement, which launched during the 16 days. Moreover there is a new movement lead by Tomam Constance Yai which fights for women's rights regarding polygamy.The focus is less on traditional rural practices, which means that a men is more likely to have more than one women for economic reasons. The fight is more against the handling of having multiple not only wives, also mistresses and other women for sexual pleasure and amusement. Especially while the system still works towards uplifting male individuals and downgrades the role of women. The campaign worked towards changes of part of the law about divorce. Which says that men and women have different rights to divorce in the Ivory Coast. A man was able to divorce his wife for adultery while a women could only leave the marriage when she would caught her man multiple times with the same women committing adultery. The awareness Yai spread lead women to speak up and critize the government and its bill. Currently it is confirmed that more and more women were able to work in different professions like teaching, social services and hospital work.
Furthermore Côte d’Ivoire is known as the second country who launcheded the African Women Leaders Network in 2018 to support the role of leading women (Abdijan, January, 2018). The Resident Representative of UN Women in Cote d'Ivoire Mrs. Awa Ndiaje Seck emphasized the importance of the launch. The Agenda is working on promoting good governance, peace and stability focusing on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.