Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
Ephraim Keoreng
29 June 2009
The incidence of poverty is still high among women -headed households, according to the 2008 report of the Botswana Institute for Development and Policy Analysis (BIDPA).
The report says that although Botswana has advanced gender equality at the work place, women are still disadvantaged in family roles, inheritance, incomes and access to loans and acquisition of assets.
It decries the fact that women do the bulk of household chores, including caring for the sick, gathering firewood and drawing water for household use, especially among poor communities.
The BIDPA report notes that Batswana still live in a patriarchal society with traditions that define and influence the roles of women and men. It raises concern that though a lot of Batswana women now have formal sector jobs, "the women who bring the bacon home" still have to fry it.
The girl child who drops out of school due to pregnancy is by law supposed to be re-admitted to continue with her studies. But most find it difficult due to shortage of school admissions or to a limited extent, due to a lack of adequate information," reads the report.
It also reveals that Tswana inheritance laws favour men where the eldest son inherits the bulk of the wealth, especially if it is cattle, and the youngest son inherits the homestead, leaving the sisters with nothing or very few assets.
"With royal families, the eldest sons succeeded their fathers as chiefs. Women still have difficulty acquiring land. Married women are legally regarded as minors, with no legal right to obtain loans without the consent of their husbands," the report says.
The report also deplores the fact that due to the prevalence of traditional gender stereotypes, women have limited access to public services. Although some laws that intended to protect the rights of women have been passed, the majority of women are less educated than men, says the report.
It points out that most of the laws aimed at protecting women favour only the educated women.
"Most of the less educated women may not even know that there are laws that protect them and some of the laws are concerned with the interests of women employed in the formal sector-who tend to be better educated," reads the report.
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