Understanding gender and global Africa : a critical perspective

Corporate globalization is advancing marginalization of African societies in the economic global sphere, a process which transcends gender but that has gender implications. This paper shows that globalization has a compounded effect on women due to certain structural disadvantages in the global and national division of labour and inequalities in assets distribution and power. The concept of Gender encompasses an economic issue as well as a social issue, in fact more so in Africa than in any other regions of the world. Both men and women play substantial economic roles, notably in agriculture and in the informal sector, but they are not evenly distributed across the sectors of the economy. This has given rise to various issues which undermine the social and economic status of the African woman. A situation which calls for adequate attention so as to stimulate some level of economic development as stipulated in this paper.