Do Women Also Give ‘Chop Money’? The Financial Contribution of Women to the African Household.

Abstract

The sharing of domestic expenses between conjugal units in Ghanaian households has changed overtime. The way and manner in which conjugal units in rural Ghana shared their domestic expenses tend to be different from how conjugal units in urban Ghana share their domestic expenses. This is as a result of the change in factors such as the shift from the farming system in agrarian economies of the rural areas to monetized urban economies where there is the market system, access to education, the change in the perception of certain cultural practices, the change in the family system. These changes have affected the way responsibilities are shared in the household. Previous works have shown that the nature of conjugal contract in households differs from one society to the other. This means that there are differences with regards to how responsibilities are shared in households in various societies in Ghana. More recent works look at only one end of the conjugal contract that is, the sharing of domestic responsibilities among spouses, not the sharing of financial responsibilities among married people. Therefore, this study investigates how both responsibilities (domestic and financial) are shared among couples in the household. Specifically, the study finds out if women are participating in “men’s” tasks of financial responsibilities and if that has resulted in men taking part in women’s tasks of domestic responsibilities and also making decisions with women. The study adopted a qualitative method of conducting research and used in-depth interviews in collecting primary data. In analyzing the data, the thematic network approach was used. Drawing on a sample of 24 couples in urban Ghana, the study revealed that women are now taking part in men’s financial responsibilities. Though this has resulted in some men sharing household chores with their wives, majority of women still do a major part of household tasks. According to this study, majority of couples make decisions together not because of the sharing of financial responsibilities but because they believe that they should make decisions together since they are couples. However in a few cases, men dominated decision making because women did not share financial responsibilities with them.