Gender Inequality in the Kanungu

District, Uganda

Socio-cultural importance of Ugandan marriages

• Are matrimonies based upon “love”, consensual contracts, or obligation and duty?• I asked the following questions to members of the public (men) in

Kanungu town centre so as to better understand their beliefs, values and cultural norms:

1.What is the importance of marriage in Uganda?2.What is a woman’s role in the household?3.What is your view on “bride price”?4.What do you think about married men having more than one wife?5.Do you think that men and women are equal? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Responses

1. Marriage is good, to impregnate a woman (have babies, love the woman, arranged marriage)

2. To cook, work on the farm – digging, plan for home – look after babies, cleaning

3. A gift to thank the parents of the girl4. To satisfy sexual needs5. No, because a man has a good job *men laughed*• *women spoke softly* – did not want to talk

1.

• In Uganda, those who are not married are viewed as incomplete, incompetent even, and are not to be trusted.• On most occasions, these people are ostracized from the social circle to

which they belong. • Thus, a person’s marital status contributes to their social status; it is a

“sign of success”. • “because many Ugandan ethnic groups are communal, marriage has been

a central means of uniting families, lineages and clans”.• This best explains the meaningfulness of marriage in Ugandan culture and

exemplifies the pressure put on women, by the community, to marry young.

2.

• Female graduate of Makerere University - both cultural and religious factors influence a woman’s role in the household• The significance of women’s responsibilities: “even working women

must make their children, husbands and houses a priority because before a woman is an employee of some company, her first office is the home. If she fails at that, society considers her a failure at all other things. Women don’t have to work, they’ll only do it if the man cannot take care of them. But, this work is only a supplement to the man’s. Such a woman must remember that, despite how much she makes, the house is her first line of duty and that she is only a helper – the man is always the main show”. - loss of autonomy

• According to the man, through the role of a wife, the woman is subjugated to child bearing: this is her “duty”.

• This “society has placed a premium on children (especially males) because of their importance in the social support system, especially in old age – female children had not been as valued because they join other families on marriage”.

• Children are regarded as valuable assets since they help with farming and household chores. If you are married but do not have children, your marriage is deemed incomplete or cursed and it is usually the woman who is to blame; in many cases, the man will find another wife and this is accepted.

• Uganda is among one of the Sub-Saharan African countries with the highest ratings of child marriages and teen pregnancies: with girls as young as 15 becoming brides, even though it is illegal to marry before 18.

• Joy for Children-Uganda reported that:“

child brides are likely to become pregnant at an early age and there is astrong correlation between the age of a mother and maternal mortality.Girls ages l0-14 are five times more likely to die in pregnancyor childbirth than women aged 20-24 and girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die”.

• Being young and pregnant is not the best position to be in in Kanungu as it usually means having to drop out of school.

• Kanungu is one of the poorest districts in Western Uganda.• Experts have distinctly linked poverty with child marriage

and early pregnancies.• New Vision - “the

district is reported to have one of the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancies in Uganda”.• Strong normative expectations for young girls to become both child-

bearers and caregivers.• Cross-generational and transactional sexual relations – increases

HIV/AIDS transmission risks and likelihood of becoming pregnant.

• Phrases are imprinted on the outside walls of classrooms and dormitories to publicise abstinence from sex and to advise girls not to accept gifts for sex. This method aids the prevention of child marriage, teen pregnancies and the prevalence of HIV/AIDs which, in turn, helps to keep teenage girls safe and increases their educational opportunities.

3.

• Bride price is one of the main instigators of teenage pregnancies in the Kanungu District. • It “consists

of a contract where material items (often cattle or other animals) or money are paid by the groom to the bride’s family in exchange for the bride, her labour and her capacity to produce children”.• “Since modernization the practice has been influenced by economic,

social, and cultural changes and its historical integrity, benefits and significance has been affected. It is however the recognition that bride price could result or exacerbate problems of exploitation of women and increase the economic burden on men”. – gender-based violence enhanced.

4.

• Polygamy – one outcome: rapid spread of HIV/AIDS.• The practice of polygyny exacerbates transmission; the prevalence rates of

HIV/AIDS being 8.1% with 315 out of 6737 pregnant women being tested HIV positive – therefore dangerous for young school girls• Another suggested outcome: it aggravates domestic violence. • If the man thinks the woman is unfaithful and vice versa, due to infidelity and

committing adultery, they fight. Sometimes the man kills the woman because of this. However, it is more socially acceptable for a man to have more than one wife than the other way round.• In their March 2014 report, Coffey identified that women’s voices need to be

strengthened to lead to empowerment. Special attention is required with adolescent girls since they are most vulnerable; “their knowledge of land rights is low and they are more likely than older women to accept that a husband can beat his wife”.

5.

• Men and women are not equal to one another in the Kanungu District. • The question asked was purposely designed to be vague to learn how the

public define equality – in this case, by employment and status.• The Foundation for Sustainable Development discuss gender equity issues

in Uganda: “gender discrimination means that women must submit to an overall lower social status than men. For many women, this reduces their power to act independently, become educated, avoid poverty, and/or escape reliance upon abusive men”. • The Equal Opportunities Commission of Uganda launched their five-year

strategic plan in 2014 which attempts to create equal opportunities for marginalised women.

Recommendations/Future Research

• Education• Early marriage/transactional/cross-generational sexual relations link

to ‘Sugar Daddy’ phenomenon• An analysis of the prospective ‘Sugar Daddy’ Awareness lessons – a

pragmatic approach to the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth (PIASCY), where there has been little subsequent training or funding to the initiative.• The ultimate objective is to integrate knowledge and attitudes

surrounding HIV/AIDS into the school curriculum.