Source: Stearns, P. N., Gosch, S.S., and Grieshaber, E.P. Documents in World History: Volume 2 – The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present. NY: Pearson Education, Inc. 2009.
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Many African women found new roles as they moved to cities and gained education. Even rural women had new power when their men left to take urban jobs; willy-nilly, they had to run their families and often support themselves. Thus, African family bonds, which once gave women security while holding them subordinate, loosened rapidly. The passages come from a series of interviews done by a Western anthropologist with women in Kenya, including one group organized in a cooperative to try to compensate for new uncertainties about family ties and support for men. Cultural change, including some expressions striking for their resemblance to modern Western movements such as feminism, is clearly a major factor in contemporary Africa.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read about the lives of women in Africa, compare and contrast their lives to those of women in the United States and major cities in Europe. How do traditional roles of women conflict and support the changes that are taking place for women across the globe?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
What we need in this village is teachers to teach women handicrafts and sewing and agricultural skills. We have organized a women’s group. I am one of the leaders. We are saving up for a building to meet in. All women are trying to earn money, and we want to have a building for our meetings. It will be called the “adult education building” – with rooms for handicrafts, literacy, and other things.
We also want our children to be educated – so we can have good leaders to keep our country good. I think now it is best to have only four children – so you can take care of them.
It is better to educate a girl than a boy, although one should educate both. Girls are better. They help a lot. See this house? My daughters built it for me. If you don’t have any daughters, who will build for you? The boys will marry and take care of their wives – that’s all. They don’t care about mothers. For example, if my son gets married, the daughter-in-law will say, “Let’s take our mothers to live with us.” The son will say, “No, we will just have our own family and do our own things.” So you are left alone. What do you do? ...
My mother has eleven children. She is my father’s only wife. She works in the fields and grows the food we eat. She plants cabbage, spinach, and corn. She works very hard, but with so many children it is difficult to get enough food or money. All of my sisters and brothers go to school. One is already a teacher, and that is why I am trying to learn a profession. If I can get enough schooling, I can serve the country and my own family. I can also manage to have a life for myself. That is why I came to this school. We have a big family, and I have to help.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. Why do African women value education? What do they see as the benefits of education? Why do they think it is more important to educate girls than boys?
My life is very different from my mother’s. She just stayed in the family until she married. Life is much more difficult now because everybody is dependent on money. Long ago, money was unheard of. No one needed money. But now you can’t even get food without cash. Times are very difficult. That is why the towns are creating day-care centers – so women can work and have their own lives. I have to work, for without it I will not have enough money for today’s life.
These are the problems I face and try to think about. How shall I manage to pick up this life so that I can live a better one? You know, we people of Kenya like to serve our parents when they are still alive – to help the family. But first, women have to get an education. Then if you get a large family and don’t know how to feed it – if you don’t have enough money for food – you can find work and get some cash. That’s what I will teach my children: “Get an education first.”
***
Women feel very hurt because they think their men don’t recognize them as human beings. They are unhappy because of this inequality. I am lucky; my husband is good. He never took another wife. We are still together…My wish would be that men and women could live as two equal people.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. How is life different for a Kenyan woman today from in the past? What has made the difference? Is this a good or bad thing? Why or why not?
IV. Personal Reflection
1. Why do Kenyan women feel compelled to get an education?
2. How does the lives of women in the past compare to the future for women in Kenya?
V. Peer Reflection
1. Read one classmate’s response to the above questions and comment on their responses. (Do you agree or disagree? Why? Are there any problems with their analysis and logic? If so, what is the problem?)
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Many African women found new roles as they moved to cities and gained education. Even rural women had new power when their men left to take urban jobs; willy-nilly, they had to run their families and often support themselves. Thus, African family bonds, which once gave women security while holding them subordinate, loosened rapidly. The passages come from a series of interviews done by a Western anthropologist with women in Kenya, including one group organized in a cooperative to try to compensate for new uncertainties about family ties and support for men. Cultural change, including some expressions striking for their resemblance to modern Western movements such as feminism, is clearly a major factor in contemporary Africa.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read about the lives of women in Africa, compare and contrast their lives to those of women in the United States and major cities in Europe. How do traditional roles of women conflict and support the changes that are taking place for women across the globe?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
What we need in this village is teachers to teach women handicrafts and sewing and agricultural skills. We have organized a women’s group. I am one of the leaders. We are saving up for a building to meet in. All women are trying to earn money, and we want to have a building for our meetings. It will be called the “adult education building” – with rooms for handicrafts, literacy, and other things.
We also want our children to be educated – so we can have good leaders to keep our country good. I think now it is best to have only four children – so you can take care of them.
It is better to educate a girl than a boy, although one should educate both. Girls are better. They help a lot. See this house? My daughters built it for me. If you don’t have any daughters, who will build for you? The boys will marry and take care of their wives – that’s all. They don’t care about mothers. For example, if my son gets married, the daughter-in-law will say, “Let’s take our mothers to live with us.” The son will say, “No, we will just have our own family and do our own things.” So you are left alone. What do you do? ...
My mother has eleven children. She is my father’s only wife. She works in the fields and grows the food we eat. She plants cabbage, spinach, and corn. She works very hard, but with so many children it is difficult to get enough food or money. All of my sisters and brothers go to school. One is already a teacher, and that is why I am trying to learn a profession. If I can get enough schooling, I can serve the country and my own family. I can also manage to have a life for myself. That is why I came to this school. We have a big family, and I have to help.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. Why do African women value education? What do they see as the benefits of education? Why do they think it is more important to educate girls than boys?
My life is very different from my mother’s. She just stayed in the family until she married. Life is much more difficult now because everybody is dependent on money. Long ago, money was unheard of. No one needed money. But now you can’t even get food without cash. Times are very difficult. That is why the towns are creating day-care centers – so women can work and have their own lives. I have to work, for without it I will not have enough money for today’s life.
These are the problems I face and try to think about. How shall I manage to pick up this life so that I can live a better one? You know, we people of Kenya like to serve our parents when they are still alive – to help the family. But first, women have to get an education. Then if you get a large family and don’t know how to feed it – if you don’t have enough money for food – you can find work and get some cash. That’s what I will teach my children: “Get an education first.”
***
Women feel very hurt because they think their men don’t recognize them as human beings. They are unhappy because of this inequality. I am lucky; my husband is good. He never took another wife. We are still together…My wish would be that men and women could live as two equal people.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. How is life different for a Kenyan woman today from in the past? What has made the difference? Is this a good or bad thing? Why or why not?
IV. Personal Reflection
1. Why do Kenyan women feel compelled to get an education?
2. How does the lives of women in the past compare to the future for women in Kenya?
V. Peer Reflection
1. Read one classmate’s response to the above questions and comment on their responses. (Do you agree or disagree? Why? Are there any problems with their analysis and logic? If so, what is the problem?)
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