Family finance and doorstep trading: social and economic wellbeing of elderly Ghanaian female traders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/sajg.v4i2.82Abstract
Ghana's female traders frequently "gift" their working businesses to their daughters or other junior female relatives as a means of providing for their old age. This occupational gifting customarily ensures the ageing trader social and economic support in her later years as she is assured of an exchange of financial and other forms of assistance. However, the gifting of the working business to a daughter does not mean the end of the woman's trading career. As she grows older the trader scales down the level of her business activities and frequently ends up trading with little capital on the doorstep of her home. This career structure provides the ageing woman with a strong economic and social definition amongst her kin and facilitates her active integration into the household unit. Continued trading inhibits social marginalization. Fifty elderly women traders were interviewed about the practice of occupational gifting. A key finding was that although the practice is still widespread it is in decline. Alternative ways of ensuring the active integration of elderly women into the contemporary African urban household are considered.References
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Apt, N.A. 1992. Ageing in the community: trends and prospects in Africa. Community Development Journal, 27(2): 130-39.
Apt, N.A. 1994. The situation of elderly women in Ghana. Report to the United Nations. New York.
Apt. N.A. 1995. Coping with old age in a changing Africa. Avebury, UK: Aldershot.
Apt, N.A. & Grieco, M.S. 1994. Urbanisation, caring for the elderly and the changing African family: the challenge to social welfare and social policy. International Social Security Review, 3(4): 111-122.
Apt, N.A. & Katila, S. 1994. Gender and intergenerational support: the case of Ghanaian women. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 3(2): 23-29.
Ardayfio-Schandorf, E. 1994. Household headship and women's earnings in Ghana. In: Ardayfio-Schandorf, E. (Ed.) Family and development in Ghana. Accra: Ghana Universities Press, pp. 30-47.
Cutrufelli. M.R. 1983. Women of Africa. Bath, UK: Pitman Press.
Derricourt, N. & Miller, C. 1992. Empowering older people: an urgent task for community development in an ageing world. Community Development Journal, 27(2): 117-21.
Dankwa, Y., Turner, J., Apt, N., Thompson, G. & Grieco, G. 1994. Living infrastructure: the role of children in refuse disposal and water provisioning in Ghana. A report in supplement of household organization research conducted on behalf of the Overseas Centre, Transport Research Laboratory, UK.
Gabianu. A. S. 1990. The Susu credit system: an ingenious way of financing business outside the formal banking system. ln: The long term perspective study of sub-Saharan Africa: Volume 2. Economic and sectoral policy issues. Washington, DC: World Bank. pp. 122-128.
Garlick, P.C. 1971. African readers and economic development in Ghana. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Grieco, M., Apt, N., Dankwa. Y. & Turner, J. I994a. At Christmas and on rainy days: the transport costs of market traders in Accra. Report to the Transport Research Laboratory. UK.
Grieco, M .. Apt. N. & Turner. J. 1994b. Home and away : domestic organisation and low income travel in urban Ghana. Report to the Transport Research Laboratory, UK.
Goody, E.N. 1978. Some theoretical and empirical aspects of parenthood in West Africa. In: Oppong, C., Adaba, G., Bekombo-Priso, M. & Mogey, J. (Eds) Marriage, fertility and parenthood in West Africa. Canberra; Australian National University Press, pp. 227-272.
Katila, S. 1994. Fieldwork notes on female market traders in Accra. Social Administration Unit, University of Ghana, Legon.
Kilson, M. 1974. African urban kinsmen: the Ga of central Accra. London; C. Hurst.
Little, K. 1973. African women in towns: an aspect of Africa's social revolution. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
Oppong, C.O. 1994. Some roles of women; what do we know? In; Ardayfio-Schandorf, E. (Ed.) Family and development in Ghana. Accra; Ghana Universities Press. pp. 57-94.
Twumasi, P.A. 1976. The working day of a woman trader; is trading an easy job? Journal of Management Studies. 2(2); 87-91.
United Nations. 1991. The world aging situation 1991. New York: United Nations.
World Bank. 1994. Averting the old age crisis: policies to protect the old and promote growth. Washington, DC; World Bank.
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1995-10-01
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