At the Crossroads: Educated Women Negotiating Marital Dilemmas to Remain afloat in Urban Uganda
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Date
2019-03-07
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Abstract
The article examines the lived experiences of educated Ugandan women with respect to the multiple negotiations associated with career and reproductive (roles as mothers and wives) demands. Drawing on qualitative data set from a large study conducted for a PhD award in 2014, the article analyses how women constructed as privileged negotiate work and marriage dilemmas as active agents within a demanding patriarchal setting. The findings show that despite their being educated, which put them at the apex of social hierarchy, visibly privileged and liberated, women continue to experience subordination in a more nuanced manner that creates dilemmas emanating from the unchanging patriarchal order. Rather than giving up and lamenting as victims of redefined subordination, they remain afloat, ably growing, moving and succeeding with their families against all odds. This study recommends that gender equality scholarship should pay more attention to unchanging social norms, practices and attitudes particularly in marital relations because what happens in marital relations may greatly affect the work life of women.
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Educated women, Work-marital dilemmas, patriarchy, negotiation, redefined subordination