The Cultural Context
From the start, we made the strategic decision to focus on women. At that time, the UN Human Development Index ranked Mali fifth from last of all countries in its Gender Inequality Index.6 More recent data indicates that in Mali, the majority of people marry in their teens and 46 percent of girls have given birth by age eighteen.7 The average woman gives birth to six children over her lifespan, and one in twenty-two women dies in childbirth.8 Less than one-third of women can read and write (less than that in rural areas), compared with half of Malian men.9 Women have little access to political power: in 2013, women made up just 10 percent of Mali’s parliament.10
At the household level, social and economic norms divide family members’ roles by gender.11 Men farm the bulk of the land, although many women are allocated plots on which to grow their own crops.
Depending on ethnicity and location, men may also earn income through animal husbandry, tailoring, butchery, fishing, or laboring for others. Increasingly, younger men may migrate outside their village for work, returning during the planting and harvesting season when their labor is required. In rural Mali, it is common for families to live in extended households headed by a patriarch with several of his younger brothers or sons, perhaps each with multiple wives and their children. Though it is a cultural expectation that no man will marry an additional wife unless he can provide equally for all his wives and children, in reality it is common for different wives and their children to experience very different economic and social circumstances. Older women may find they hold power over younger wives; conversely, they may be neglected if their husbands turn more of their attention (and income) toward the new brides. In femaleheaded households, women must take on greater responsibilities and may face greater hardship as they navigate single parenthood amid cultural norms that often bar women from property ownership and equal inheritance and limit the earning opportunities available to them.As a rule, men spread at least some of their harvest across the household as a whole, providing staple foods such as millet, corn, or rice, which make up the bulk of the typical Malian diet.
Women are tasked with managing their households. They cook, pound millet, weed their husbands’ fields, carry water from an often distant well or stream, do the laundry, shop in the market, care for infants, and educate young children. To finance their share of the household expenses, many women harvest wood for charcoal and shea nuts to refine into shea butter (both laborious processes), cultivate produce in a garden or fields, or sell produce or prepared food in the local markets. In general, women provide the “sauce” ingredients that flavor the staple grain—growing or buying tomatoes, onions, okra, and perhaps fish or a little meat. Women generally also take care of their children’s clothing, school supplies, healthcare, and other everyday expenses, often paying costs themselves. Women might take turns preparing meals for their extended family or for their husband, if he has more than one wife.Many women manage their household finances through tontines, where they can save for larger purchases. They may also keep money at home or, if they are a bit more prosperous, own a few chickens or goats to sell if need be. When these reserves run out, some take loans at high rates from moneylenders, while others report begging or going hungry.12 Regardless, most rural Malian women, as well as men, lack access to formal financial services. Delivery costs are too high and credit needs are too small to make serving these Malians profitable or sustainable.13 Mamadou and I felt this was the group with which we wanted to work: financially experienced, independent, and savvy women who faced great challenges and who could probably benefit most from better tools to manage their finances.