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The Status of Women in the Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

William J. House
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Extract

The Sudan is the largest country in Africa and ranks as one of the poorest, with an estimated income per capita of U.S.$400 in 1983.1 It is predominantly rural and sparsely inhabited, with an estimated total population in 1985 of 21.6 million, of whom as many as almost half are younger than 15 while only three per cent are aged 65 and over.2 The crude birth rate approaches 50 per thousand and the annual growth rate of the population is likely to be about three per cent.3 Harsh environmental and poor sanitation conditions contribute to a relatively high incidence of morbidity and infant mortality, with severe diarrhoeal diseases as a major cause of ill-health and child death. Life expectancy at birth is currently estimated to be only 48 years, while the infant mortality rate is put at 118 per thousand live births.4

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 277 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

Page 277 note 1 U.N.F.P.A., Assistance and Population Data (New York, 1987).Google Scholar

Page 277 note 2 Ibid.

Page 277 note 3 Ministry of National Planning, Department of Statistics, The Sudan Fertility Survey (Khartoum, 1982), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

Page 277 note 4 U.N.F.P.A., op. cit.

Page 278 note 1 The Sudan Fertility Survey, p. 6.

Page 278 note 2 The term ‘formal’ or ‘modern’ sector is meant to convey the concept of relatively large-size establishments using capital-intensive technology, where labour relationships are formalised and from where the Government collects information and data on a regular basis. In practice, it is often identified with establishments consisting of more than 20 workers in the Sudan. In contrast, the ‘informal’ sector is generally uncontrolled by the authorities in its operations and labour relations. It is relatively labour-intensive but gives employment to a large number of independent, small-scale entrepreneurs and unprotected workers who provide a wide range of goods and services to the general public. It goes largely unenurmerated in official statistics and is unbiquitous in Africa and other third-world countries.

Page 279 note 1 El Dareer, Asma, Women, why Do You Weep? Circumcision and its Consequences (London, 1982), p. 81.Google Scholar

Page 279 note 2 Azzam, Henry T., Nasr, Julinda Abu, and Lorfing, I., ‘An Overview of Arab Women in Population, Employment and Economic Development’, in Nasr, Abu, Khoury, Nabil F., and Azzam, , Women, Employment and Development in the Arab World (Berlin, 1985).Google Scholar

Page 279 note 3 Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn, ‘The Women's Movement in the Sudan and its Impact on Sudanese Law and Politics’, in The Ahfad Journal (Omdurman), 2, I, 06 1985, p. 61.Google Scholar

Page 280 note 1 Bedri, Nafisa, and Burchinal, Lee, ‘Educational Attainment as an Indicator of the Status of Women in the Sudan’, in The Ahfad Journal, 2, I, 06 1985, p. 30.Google Scholar

Page 280 note 2 For example, see Farooq, Ghazi and Simmons, George, Fertility in Developing Countries: an economic perspective on research and policy issues (London, 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 281 note 1 Source: Sanderson, Lillian M., ‘Some Aspects of the Development of Girls' Education in the Northern Sudan’, in Sudan Notes and Records (Khartoum), 42, 1961, p. 91.Google Scholar

Page 281 note 2 Saghayroun, Atif, ‘Women's Status and Fertility in the Sudan’, in The Ahfad Journal, 2, 1, 06 1985, p. 47.Google ScholarPubMed

Page 281 note 3 Sanderson, loc. cit.

Page 282 note 1 Newman, Jeanne S., ‘Women in the Sudan: examination from national level data’, in The Ahfad Journal, 2, 1, 06 1985, p. 19.Google Scholar

Page 282 note 2 Girls in the Southern Sudan are also amongst the most severely disadvantaged. According to Bedri and Burchinal, loc. cit., 50,000 girls and 120,000 boys were attending primary and intermediate schools in the South in 1982–3. In 1973, the 5–14 age group constituted 26.5 per cent of the population of the Sudan, and if this proportion is applied to the 5.3 million in the South in 1983, it is possible to estimate the potential primary and intermediate school-age population. In this case, 17 per cent of boys and only 7 per cent of girls aged 5–14 were attending school in the Southern Sudan in 1982–3.

Page 282 note 3 According to Bedri and Burchinal, loc. cit., while the constinuation rates for both sexes remain low, relatively larger proportions of girls in recent years compared with earlier periods are continuing from one school level to the next.

Page 282 note 4 Ministry of National Planning, Department of Statistics, Statistical Abstract (Khartoum, 1983), p. 48.Google Scholar

Page 283 note 1 Source: Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Department of Statistics, Statistical Abstract (Khartoum, 1985), pp. 45–71.Google Scholar

Page 284 note 1 In 1982–3, 67 graduated from Ahfad University for Women and 30 from Khartoum High Nursing College.

Page 284 note 2 No women graduated from either the Mechanical Engineering College or the Abu Haraz and Abu Naama Colleges of Agriculture in 1982–3, and only 20 (25%) from the College of Hygiene, 25 (36%) in Physical Education, 33 (21%) in Radiography, and 38(15%) in Music and Drama. Statistical Abstract, 1985, pp. 45–71.

Page 285 note 1 Surveys using the I.L.O. labour-force approach normally adopt the reference period of last week or month, and they define persons as ‘economically active’ if their products or services would be included in national income accounts according to U.N. recommendations. Accordingly, all primary-product activities and processing should be considered as labour-force activities, including animal tending and milking, threshing, processing and preparing food for preservation and storage, and free gathering of fruit, whether or not market exchanges take place. In practice, however, because these activities go hand-in-hand with other traditional female domestic tasks, they do not usually qualify persons undertaking them as being ‘economically active’ in the minds of both respondents and interviewers. See Anker, Richard, Female Labour Force Activity in Developing Countries: a critique of current data collection techniques (Geneva, 1983), I.L.O. Population and Labour Policies Programme, Working Paper No. 136.Google Scholar

Page 285 note 2 Although strict comparisons between countries are difficult because of national variations in concepts and coverage, the Sudan ranks third out of 11 Arab and Muslim countries in its crude female labour-force participation rate. The range in percentages is from 34.9 for Somalia, 23.3 for Indonesia, and 14.1 for the Sudan, to 8.9 for Iran, 5.7 for Egypt, and 3.5 for Algeria; Mohamed, Murtada Mustafa, ‘Women, Work and Development: a view from Sudan’, in The Ahfad Journal, 2, I, 06 1985, p. 41.Google Scholar

Page 285 note 3 International Labour Office, Growth, Employment and Equity: a comprehensive strategy for the Sudan (Geneva, 1976), pp. 304–5.Google Scholar

Page 286 note 2 Ibid. pp. 308–9.

Page 287 note 1 International Labour Office and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Labour Markets in the Sudan (Geneva, 1984).Google Scholar

Page 287 note 2 Ibid. p. 58.

Page 288 note 1 Umbadda, Saddig and Musa, Adam Abdul-Jalil, ‘Women in Small-Scale Irrigated Agriculture: the case of Wadi Kutum’, in Afrika Spectrum (Hamburg), 1985, 3, p. 347.Google Scholar

Page 289 note 1 Gruenbaum, Ellen, Patterns of Family Living: a case study of two villages on the Rahad River (Khartoum, 1979), Development Studies and Research Centre, Monograph Series No. 12, p. 37.Google Scholar

Page 289 note 2 The 1973 census of population estimated that the crude labour-force participation rate of women in the urban and rural areas of the Southern Sudan were 7.4 and 11.1 per cent, respectively. These rates rise to 10.6 and 11.6 per cent, respectively, if the denominator is restricted to females aged 10 and over - Robin Mills, ‘Population and Manpower in the Southern Sudan, University of Durham, 1977, p. 37. Given the sex-specific tasks assigned to women, without whose contribution agricultural output could not be realised, these official data are largely meaningless.

Page 289 note 3 House, William J. and Phillips-Howard, Kevin D., Population and Poverty in Rural Southern Sudan: a case study of the Acholi area (Geneva, 1986), I.L.O. Population and Labour Policies Programme, Working Paper No. 155.Google Scholar

Page 290 note 1 House, William J., A Socio-Economic and Demographic Profile of the Population of Urban Juba (Geneva, 1986), I.L.O. Population and Labour Policies Programme, Working Paper No. 154.Google Scholar

Page 290 note 2 The data in this paragraph were generated in establishment surveys conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and reported by Kader, N. Abdel, Working Women in the Sudan (Khartoum, 1984), in Arabic.Google Scholar

Page 290 note 3 Ibid.

Page 291 note 1 Source: Abdel Kader, op.cit.

Page 291 note 2 The ‘formal’ or ‘modern’ sector is not strictly defined in the source of the data, but the survey of both the public and private sectors was limited to establishments employing five persons or more in every economic activity except agriculture, mines, and quarries.

Page 292 note 1 During the 1970s, according to I.L.O./U.N.H.C.R., op. cit. p. 3, industrial investment in the Sudan has been limited and overall production has stagnated.

Page 292 note 2 Kenyon, Susan, Women and the Urban Process: a case study from El Gal'a, Sennar (Khartoum, 1984), Development Studies and Research Centre Seminar No. 46.Google Scholar

Page 292 note 3 Ibid. pp. 24–5.

Page 293 note 1 House, op. cit.

Page 293 note 2 I.L.O./U.N.H.C.R., op. cit. p. 81.

Page 293 note 3 Ibid. p. 69.

Page 294 note 1 Ibid. p. 169.

Page 294 note 2 Ibid. pp. 120–1. These figures must be treated with caution, as representing order of magnitude only, because harvest and post-harvest operations involve non-monetary payments as well.

Page 294 note 3 Ibid. pp. 32–3. Although the official exchange rate at this time was U.S.$=S£2.45, the unofficial rate often reached U.S.$=S£5.00.

Page 294 note 4 House, William J. and Cohen, Nigel B., ‘An Extended Socio-Economic and Demographic Profile of the Population of Urban Juba’, 1986.Google Scholar

Page 295 note 1 The Sudan Fertility Survey.

Page 296 note 1 Boserup, Esther, ‘Economic and Demographic Interrelationships in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Population and Development Review (Ann Arbour), 11, 3, 09 1985, p. 388.Google Scholar

Page 297 note 1 Source: The Sudan Fertility Survey.

Page 298 note 1 In response to the question, ‘If you could choose exactly the number of children to have in your whole life, how many children would that be?’, 18.3 per cent of women in the Sudan fertility survey gave a non-numeric answer, such as ‘Up to God’ or ‘As many as possible’. In a comparable survey question in urban Juba, 42 per cent of the respondents placed their destiny in the hands of God and fate – House and Cohen, op.cit.

Page 298 note 2 Boserup, loc. cit. p. 392.

Page 299 note 1 The Sudan Fertility Survey, p. 34.

Page 299 note 2 Ibid. p. 38.

Page 299 note 3 El. Dareer, op. cit.

Page 299 note 4 Ibid. p. 60.

Page 300 note 1 Ibid. p. 81.

Page 300 note 2 Growth, Employment, and Equity.