Coping Strategies
In the previous section, the primary sources of vulnerabilities experienced by both women and men were discussed. This section is directed at seeking answers to the research question on coping strategies at the disposal of women and men. To obtain information on the available coping strategies, the respondents were asked how they were able to survive. In this section, we discuss individual responses to socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Brown and Kelly (2005) conceptualization of principal and complementary coping strategies outlined earlier and how these existing coping strategies are influenced by gender dynamics guides the discussion in this section.
Household respondents reported that they employ a wide range of individual coping strategies to manage their vulnerabilities and shocks. The principal activities reported by household respondents were shea nuts collection, sales from livestock and charcoal, brewing and selling ‘pito’ (sorghum beer). Typical complementary coping strategies reported by the research participants included food-vending, a collection of forest resource for food, the sale of fuelwood and casual labor. Others include food compromisation coping strategies such as decrease in the number of daily meals served and consumption of less preferred foods.
Principal coping strategies
Access to common environmental resources is critical in enabling household respondents to obtain essential items such as spices and body cream for personal use and sale. In all the research interactions, ‘gathering shea nuts’ emerged as a female coping strategy. The shea tree with the botanical name ‘Vitallaria paradox’ is a common wild tree that grows mostly in the dry Savanna belt of Ghana. The raw shea nuts are cracked to remove the outer cover leaving the kernel, which is roasted and mashed, into a paste from which the shea butter is extracted.
The FGDs revealed that women gathered shea nuts for processing and sale. Participants suggested that higher participation rates occur between April and July. When asked why men were not engaged in the shea nuts gathering and processing, the participants explained that the processing of shea nuts into products such as moisturizing shea butter is time-consuming, and it requires skills from women’s reproductive role such as grinding of cooking ingredients. For instance, during the interviews, 51-year old leader of the Ponyentanga shea nuts processing group explained:
Men cannot roast the kernel from the shea nuts because they are not involved in food preparation. They [men] do not even have the time to go through this lengthy shea nuts preparation process.
A 39-year old male farmer made a similar comment:
Shea nuts business is a woman’s work. Men are not involved in the picking of shea nuts because it takes too much time to gather a few shea nuts.
The second reason for men’s exclusion in the shea nuts gathering activity was attributed to tradition and socialization. Shea nuts gathering and processing is a woman’s work. Hmmm, I do not know why it is women-only business. We came to meet this tradition. Our mothers did it. It’s a woman’s job [35-year old married woman, Ponyentanga].