Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
South has shown that many of these assumptions about 'unitary
households' are not borne out by the evidence. In many countries in
Africa and Asia, a significant proportion of households are characterized
by extended family structures rather than nuclear families, although
nuclear family and women-headed households are becoming more com-
mon, in response to rapid processes of urbanization and economic change.
Rather than being static residential units, many households in the global
South are characterized by fluid structures and change over time, as
family members move to live with other relatives and migrate for work,
studies and care over the life-course. Households are usually linked in to
extensive social networks and reciprocal flows of resources and assets
between rural and urban areas, with household members regularly giv-
ing and receiving material, practical and emotional support to and from
extended family members, neighbours and friends, and fulfilling kinship
and communal responsibilities and inheritance practices.
Rather than being characterized by altruism and harmony,
intra-household relations and decision-making processes are frequently
characterized by unequal power relations and conflicting interests.
Patterns of income earning, resource allocation and expenditure within
households vary significantly according to gender and other sociocul-
tural differences, which affects the well-being of children and other
family members. In many countries around the world, research has
shown that women generally spend a higher proportion of their income
on family consumption and invest more in children's education and
health, resulting in lower malnutrition rates and higher school enrol-
ment rates, particularly for girls; while men tend to spend more of their
income on personal expenses. Furthermore, in rural and urban areas in
sub-Saharan Africa, Western notions of a male breadwinner with over-
all control of resource allocation are inappropriate; men's and women's
incomes are not usually pooled and they have separate budgets, invest-
ments and different responsibilities for household expenditure. While
men are responsible for housing the family, women are largely respon-
sible for food production, cooking materials and children's clothes.
Children's education and medical costs are usually a joint expenditure.
Women-headed households are often assumed to be poorer due to
higher numbers of dependents (children and elderly or disabled rela-
tives they care for), lower incomes and time pressures due to women's
productive and reproductive roles. However, Momsen (2002) and Chant
(2007a) have argued that the notion of woman-headed households in
the global South as 'the poor of the poor' is a myth. They suggest that
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