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Uganda WOMEN IN SOCIETY
Women's roles were clearly subordinate to those of men,
despite the substantial economic and social
responsibilities of
women in Uganda's many traditional societies. Women were
taught
to accede to the wishes of their fathers, brothers,
husbands, and
sometimes other men as well, and to demonstrate their
subordination to men in most areas of public life. Even in
the
1980s, women in rural areas of Buganda were expected to
kneel
when speaking to a man. At the same time, however, women
shouldered the primary responsibilities for childcare and
subsistence cultivation, and in the twentieth century,
women had
made substantial contributions to cash-crop agriculture.
Many men claimed that their society revered women, and
it was
true that Ugandan women had some traditional rights that
exceeded
those of women in Western societies. Many Ugandans
recognized
women as important religious leaders, who sometimes had
led
religious revolts that overthrew the political order
dominated by
men. In some areas of Uganda, women could own land,
influence
crucial political decisions made by men, and cultivate
crops for
their own profit. But when cash-crop agriculture became
lucrative, as in southeastern Uganda in the 1920s, men
often
claimed rights to land owned by their female relatives,
and their
claims were supported by local councils and protectorate
courts.
Polygynous marriage practices, which permit a man to
marry
more than one woman, have reinforced some aspects of male
dominance, but they also have given women an arena for
cooperating to oppose male dominance. Moreover, a man
sometimes
granted his senior wife "male" status, allowing her to
behave as
an equal toward men and as a superior toward his other
wives. But
in the twentieth century, polygynous marriages had created
bonds
that were not legally recognized as marriage, leaving
women
without legal rights to inheritance or maintenance in the
event
of divorce or widowhood.
Women began to organize to exercise their political
power
before independence. In 1960 the Uganda Council of Women
passed a
resolution urging that laws regarding marriage, divorce,
and
inheritance should be recorded in written from and
publicized
nationwide--a first step toward codifying customary and
modern
practices. During the first decade of independence, this
council
also pressed for legal reforms that would grant all women
the
right to own property and retain custody of their children
if
their marriages ended.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the violence that
swept
Uganda inflicted a particularly heavy toll on women.
Economic
hardships were felt first in the home, where women and
children
lacked economic choices available to most men. Women's
work
became more time-consuming than it had been; the erosion
of
public services and infrastructure reduced access to
schools,
hospitals, and markets. Even traveling to nearby towns was
often
impossible. Some Ugandan women believed that the war years
strengthened their independence, however, as the
disruption of
normal family life opened new avenues for acquiring
economic
independence, and government reports suggested that the
number of
women employed in commerce increased in the late 1970s and
early
1980s.
The Museveni government of the late 1980s pledged to
eliminate discrimination against women in official policy
and
practice. Women are active in the National Resistance Army
(NRA),
and Museveni appointed a woman, Joan Kakwenzire, to a
six-member
commission to document abuses by the military
(see Human Rights
, ch. 5). The government also has decreed that one woman
would
represent each district on the National Resistance Council
(NRC--
see
The National Resistance Council
, ch. 4). In addition,
the
government-operated Uganda Commercial Bank has launched a
rural
credit plan to make farm loans more easily available to
women
(see Banking
, ch. 3).
Museveni appointed Joyce Mpanga minister for women and
development in 1987, and she proclaimed the government's
intention to raise women's wages, increase women's credit
and
employment opportunities, and improve the lives of women
in
general. In 1989 there were two women serving as ministers
and
three serving as deputy ministers in the NRM cabinet.
Women civil
servants and professionals also formed an organization,
Action
for Development, to assist women in war-torn areas,
especially
the devastated Luwero region in central Uganda.
The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers, which was
founded in
1976, established a legal-aid clinic in early 1988 to
defend
women who faced the loss of property or children because
of
divorce, separation, or widowhood. The association also
sought to
expand educational opportunities for women, increase
childsupport payments (equivalent to US$0.50 per month in 1989)
in
case of divorce, establish common legal grounds for
divorce for
both men and women, establish common criminal codes for
men and
women, assist women and children who were victims of AIDS,
and
implement nationwide education programs to inform women of
their
legal rights.
Data as of December 1990
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