Cited by 117Income, Poverty, and InequalityGender, Labor, and Family DynamicsHIV/AIDS Impact and Responses

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Missing men? The debate over rural poverty and women‐headed households in Southern Africa

O'laughlin, Bridget·1998·The Journal of Peasant Studies

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Abstract

Migrant labour in Southern Africa is associated historically with rural poverty and a high incidence of women‐headed households. Poverty alleviation approaches to social policy ask whether in this context rural women‐headed households are poorer than those headed by men. Ample research from the region shows that the answer is not always, a finding once more confirmed here in an analysis of Botswana. This case suggests, however, that the wrong question is being asked. The incidence of both women‐headed households and rural poverty has increased with the polarisation of agrarian production and the exclusionary restructuring of the migrant labour system. We need to ask not whom to target, but what should be done when capital no longer needs the labour that it pulled from rural households over so many generations.

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Authors: O'laughlin, B.
Venue: The Journal of Peasant Studies
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Published: 1998-01
Volume: 25
Issue: 2
Pages: 1-48
ISSN: 0306-6150 (ISSN-L)
1743-9361
DOI: 10.1080/03066159808438665
OpenAlex: W1977971987
Cited by: 117
References: 72
Citations by year: 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 10
FWCI: 18.91
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: The Journal of Peasant Studies (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses
Keywords: rural poverty, female-headed households, migrant labour, Southern Africa, Botswana, poverty reduction, social policy targeting, rural women, labor-capital relations

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Missing men? The debate over rural poverty and women‐headed households in Southern Africa

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