Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Women’s changing domestic responsibilities in neoliberal Africa: a relational time-space analysis of Lesotho’s garment industry

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dc.creator Ansell, N
dc.creator Tsoeu, S
dc.creator Hajdu, F
dc.date 2015-02-13T14:23:03Z
dc.date 2015-02-13T14:23:03Z
dc.date 2015
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-25T14:53:56Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-25T14:53:56Z
dc.identifier Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 22(3): pp.363-382, (2015)
dc.identifier 0966-369X
dc.identifier http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2013.855712#.VNuLfTZFB9A
dc.identifier http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/10231
dc.identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.855712
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/172720
dc.description Since 2001 when Lesotho embraced the neoliberal African Growth and Opportunities Act that offers preferential access to the US market, its garment industry has expanded dramatically to become the nation’s leading employer. Elsewhere, large-scale employment of women in low-paid factory jobs has entailed spatial restructuring of gender and age relations. Lesotho is a distinctive context, with socio-spatial relations historically adjusted to male labour migration, high levels of contemporary male unemployment and alarming AIDS prevalence. Based on semi-structured interviews with 40 female factoryworkers and 37 dependents, this article applies a relational time-space analysis to explore how financial and spatio-temporal aspects of factory employment articulate to alter women’s relationships with those for whom they have culturally determined responsibilities: their children, those suffering from ill health and their (generally rural) home communities. The analysis highlights that such employment is not merely adding to women’s responsibilities, but transforming how they are able to undertake social reproduction, as practical, social and emotional roles are converted to largely financial obligations.
dc.language en
dc.publisher Taylor & Francis
dc.subject Neoliberalism
dc.subject Garment sector
dc.subject Time-space
dc.subject Social reproduction
dc.subject Lesotho
dc.subject Neoliberalismo
dc.subject Sector textil
dc.subject Tiempo-espacio,
dc.subject Reproducción social
dc.subject Lesotho
dc.title Women’s changing domestic responsibilities in neoliberal Africa: a relational time-space analysis of Lesotho’s garment industry
dc.type Article


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