I haven't been here for long, but I have learned a lot on this topic. I'm going to try and just present the facts and not give a whole lot of my opinion. At this point, it is still psychologically hard for me to see how greatly the gender roles are divided so I haven't allowed myself to think of it much, mostly because it would make me so outraged. I'm not blaming the females or the males for continuing these gender roles. We would see it as a problem, but, in general, I feel Malians would just tell you that's the way it is, and that would be that. Feel free to tell me your opinion on the matter. I could always use new insights or trains of thoughts to consider.
A woman's day usually starts in the wee hours of the morning, far before the sun comes out. They are up cooking breakfast for the family, fetching water, or sweeping the lawn. She must tend to the children when they wake up, making sure they are fed and taken care of. She spends the morning washing clothes or washing dishes from the day before. Around 10 she begins cooking lunch for the family, often cooking for her husband's parents as well as her husband's siblings. In my home stay family, Fatimatah cooked for 10 people. When lunch time comes around, she usually walks around cleaning or sits on the smallest stool the family owns whilst all of the men in her family sit in the nicest chairs the family owns and eats the food she has prepared. Her children will all eat. Once everyone else has finished eating, she will eat what is left or will eat with the other women who were cooking for the other family members too.
After lunch, she might tie her youngest child to her back and head out to the field. If there is no donkey cart, or if the men took it, she will walk at least a mile to reach the field her family owns. After a few hours bending over mending to the crops, she will head back in to begin cooking dinner. If she doesn't go to the field, she might instead go to the market to try and sell a few goods her family has produced or to buy food for the next few days or week. It's the same routine of waiting for the men to finish eating, eating whatever is left. If the men are making tea, she might be lucky to get a drink during the third round of tea (I am always served the first or second glass of tea during the first round of tea and I am offered tea during all three rounds), and there might be a stool for her to sit on. After dinner, she cleans things up, removing dishes and putting things back into the kitchen. She helps bathe the children, puts them to sleep, and then she might yaala yaala through the village to talk to her other female friends. They might talk about funny events, what their toubab did that day, or talk about their children, money, and other concerns they have.
Life for women here is rough. The average woman has 7.4 children. (In America, women average 2.06 children.) For every 1000 live births, there are 113 deaths. The rate of domestic violence is high. Although it is high in America too, there is less of a taboo here so domestic violence is more public. (In my short time here, I have not seen domestic violence between spouses, but I have seen several children being hit by adults, birds being hit with slingshots or killed just cause, donkeys and cows being beaten, bugs and insects being tortured. The saddest story is hearing of the cat with two broken back legs dragging itself through town. The animals are all underfed, the people don't get adequate nutrition, and you can always see their ribs jutting out.)
The education levels of all children is extremely low, male or female. Of all children here in Mali, ages 7-12, only 58% are in school, and only 51% of young girls are in school. Part of this has to do with the fact that a girl can be married at age 15, and with parental consent (not hard to come by), girls can be married when they are younger than 15. I have met a number of women who are 16, 17, 18 and have two or three children already. Let's not forget that a woman can share her husband with his 1, 2, or 3 other wives. They take care of all of his children, whether or not they are their own, but they view their family as one unit. Ask a child who their mom is, and they usually won't point to their biological mother. Instead, they say they are my moms, and they won't differentiate between them no matter how you ask or alter the question. That's how they see it. Women make up only 15% of the labor force here, obviously hindered by a lack of education and demands of running her household. In America, women make up 46% of the labor force, and the women who stay at home often choose to do so in order to be with their children rather than being forced to stay home.
Prostitution here is legal. When I was in Sikasso, current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) were able to point out who these women were. An easy way to notice is by looking at the direction in which she has tied her pagne. A pagne is a wrap skirt. If the skirt is wrapped so the opening is on the right side of her body, she is a prostitute. It's an easy signal for all parties involved (unless you are an unknowing foreigner, but they taught us this lesson very early on). The rate of AIDS is under 2%, but this is because people do not get tested. Women rarely go to bars, and never alone, so the women who do go to the bars are easily recognized as being prostitutes as well.
Finally, approximately 95% of women undergo FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). There are several different ways of performing the procedure (procedure makes it sound like something necessary or good, but I'm not sure what the correct word is to use). The attitudes towards FGM differ between every village and the reasons for continuing the procedure also differ. In one village, nearly 30 women died of infection at the same time as a result of this practice so the village stopped doing it. It wasn't so much that their attitudes had changed. It was just a sign from Allah.
I think it is safe to say that life here for a Malian woman is hard. It's hard for all parties involved. The women take great pride in being able to support and provide for their family though. They like their roles because being able to take care of everyone is the way they earn respect from other villagers.
A man's life is drastically different. They usually wake up an hour or two after the women in order to eat breakfast. They might spend the morning working in the field, going by moto or donkey card. If there is no work to be done, they hang out at the butigi (small village shops) with the other men. They might play card games, smoke, or just talk. They return home for lunch in the afternoon. When lunch has finished, they go back to the field or the butigi and usually make tea for an hour or two. They pass the afternoon away in this way. They return home around 6 to take a shower, spend time with their family, and to eat dinner. After dinner, they go back out to talk with their male friends, listen to the radio, make tea, or watch TV in another concession.
There are men who do other things of course, but this is above and beyond the sweeping generalization of life for a male in a village. Very generalized. People who are public officials might go to the office all day to do work for their community. They may sell goods in the market, work as tailors, and so on. They spend time with their children in the evening. I saw one man help with laundry one day, and they made fun of him the entire time. They don't ever enter the kitchen, never wash dishes, don't help the children bathe, etc.
Again, these are the generalized gender roles found here in Mali. There is much more discussion to be made about how the lives of children differ from the adults, the gender roles that exist between the male and female children, and so on.
How do I fit into all of this? I am kind of a third sex here (something I've mentioned before). I am more respected that Malian women because I am educated (probably more educated than any person in my village actually). Additionally, I am American and there is a general knowledge that gender roles in America are different. Regardless of my education status, I am not necessarily as respected as the men in the village simply because I am a woman. However, I can get away with saying or doing some things with the explanation that I am naïve, a silly woman, a silly American, and so on. The women in my village will make sure that I am taken care of- that I am eating well, that I am keeping my house and compound clean, that my clothes are washed, etc. They will also make sure I am safe at night, and they should put any harassing men in their place. The men will help me to do work in the schools, and I must go through them to get permission to start projects and they will oversee my work (although all village members will also be more than happy to do this). It's a bit of a tricky role to play, but it allows me some freedom, and I think I can use my status to empower women and serve as a role model and also use it as leverage when I ask men about doing projects with women.
I don't think there is any good starting or stopping point here. It will be an ongoing learning opportunity throughout the next two years and will always give me something to think about. I hope it gives you a little something something to think about as well.
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