Table 3 Pig-enterprise income allocation reported by men, women in male-headed households (WMHH) and women in female-headed households (WFHH) smallholder pig farmers in Central Region, Uganda
Who spends this way | Who said they spend this way | Participants’ perception |
|---|---|---|
Spent to benefit household members | ||
Men | Men | In a home, the needs/responsibilities of men differ from women. It’s the role of a man to pay school fees for the children, look after the home |
Men | Men | … most times it’s the needs at home that force us to sell. We usually sell [pigs] due to emergency like school fees, sickness, and food |
Men | Men | They use it to buy home requirements. They sell [pigs] when they have a problem. Let me tell you the truth, if for example a man is working in [name of village] and is not yet paid, but there are 3 pigs at home which are ready for sell, if there is a need at home, he would tell the wife to sell the pigs to meet the home needs like sugar, salt, food. So that by the time he gets paid, he has already covered the family needs. That is my experience |
Men | Men | We get children’s necessities, pay school fees, and to buy clothes for our wives. [Facilitator: And to buy suits for you?] We pay school fees for the children and buy our wives nice clothes. We only buy the clothes for the wives after we have accomplished the children’s necessities. Women can be our witnesses. There is no way you can get 800,000 shillings and you do not give your wife [money] to do her hair, or get a new dress |
Men | Men | …[buy] fertilizers, restocking |
WMHH | WMHH | …as a mother you have to chip in or sometimes when children are going to school, men tend to provide the major requirements like school fees, books, pens and when it comes to things like sugar, eats, sanitary towels etcetera they don’t want to know and definitely as a mother, you have to provide the remaining needs and that is how we spend our money |
WMHH | WMHH | To pay school fees for our children, meet basic needs like sugar, soap and food etc. and restocking |
WMHH | WMHH | It is for paying school fees for the children. The women are involved in paying school fees for their children these days. Few men are involved in the fights. It is school fees, buying clothes for them even home necessities like salt, soap and food. Buying clothes is only by chance for the women. We depend on donations from well-wishers |
WMHH | WFHH | It is the woman who normally buys the pig in the home. She wants to get something to do at home. To help in looking after the children. It is the woman who feels the pain of poverty, not the man and decides to start rearing pigs |
WFHH | WFHH | For school fees [Facilitator: Any other thing?] To buy home requirements like sugar, soap, salt, for health needs. Sometimes pay debts |
Men and women | WFHH | …the man can take the money elsewhere. But for the woman the money is used in the family |
Women | Men | [Women] will always want to restock |
Spent to benefit others who are not household members | ||
Men | WFHH | The difference is that when men get money, they spend it all because they want to buy things for everybody |
Men | Men | …as men, we have our own responsibilities …thus if decisions are dependent on me like looking after my other family, my siblings and other needs if not to mention… For instance some men like me has more than one woman and I don’t wish the first to know about my other family thus when it comes to selling things like pigs, … [I] am happy not to tell my first wife the money gotten after sales because I have to meet [the] needs of other family as well because they are also my responsibility …this portion is going to the other family and this portion will remain here |
Men | Men | It’s the role of a man …if you lost a relative you are expected to contribute as a son-in-law, which is not the case with women |
Men | WMHH | My husband after we have sold pigs, he disappears from home for a week with [his] other mistress until the money is all spent. Sometimes we sell and he brings half home and takes alcohol with the other the half. Some men have more than one wife with other children thus they can never be straight with their income |
Men | WFHH | He even has a concubine, and he has to play that part too, he has to take [her] something. Will he be always taking empty coats there? He has had a bumper harvest from this home, so let him take there as well |
WMHH | Men | If a woman happens to get money on her, she will hide it instead of bringing it out or sometimes send the money to their [ancestral] homes |
Spent to benefit household and self | ||
Men | Men | [The man in the scenario] asked [for] money to buy a suit. Us men we take long to buy clothes but women… they buy every now and then |
Men | Men | In most cases men have not been fair with money gotten from selling pigs because if a woman requests him to help and sell the pigs, he will sell and bring half of the money and he can’t explain where the rest of the money went. And I think that it comes due to dictatorship of some men. For instance, one of my colleagues in this group phrased it that women and land are assets and they are just bought. No it’s not true. [Women] are also human beings like us and they deserve respect |
Men | WMHH | Indirectly sometimes decisions are made by our husbands because when he gets to know that you sold pigs, he will not pay school fees, will not buy sugar, paraffin, food because he knows that you have money and he needs to spend it even when you are not forced directly |
WMHH | WMHH | Does her hair nicely, and to cater for family requirements. For example, buy shoes for the child, which has been long standing because the father said he did not have the money. The onus is on the woman to see that the children’s needs are met. Before getting a new dress for myself, I have to first clear the family needs. For example, a child may have spoilt something like the thermos flask and we had kept [that fact] from the husband. So you get a new one, you take the kettle for repair. These are the priorities which the man may not think about. The child does not have bed sheets; the man doesn’t even know that need despite that you have pestering him… I buy the things needed at home. We do the hair only after we have met those needs |
Spent to benefit self | ||
Men | Men | Yes, in instances where men take alcohol, money can be mishandled because he may end up boozing all the money instead of meeting the required needs at home |
Men | Men | Sometimes after [selling pigs], men tend to divert the money in non-developmental issues |
Men | WFHH | …he can just disappear without paying off the debts… you can sit and wait and the child may not even go to school, he has disappeared. He comes back drunk |
Men | WMHH | …in houses where husbands don’t meet their responsibilities like providing food home, school fees or those that take alcohol whereby after selling the pig, he will just go and drink all the money |
Men | WMHH | For instance like the men who sell pigs and decide to spend the money recklessly when there is no food at home |
Men | WMHH | Doc … but it’s the truth we do most of the activities while men are not at home and surprisingly even if the pigs belong to the man, you have to look after them and when it comes to selling time, he may not even give you a coin |