Table 5 Strategies smallholder pig-farming household members (men, women in male-headed households [WMHH] and women in female-headed households [WFHH]) in Central Region, Uganda, employ to influence pigs-sales income allocation
Strategy | Who uses this strategy | Who said they use this strategy | Participants’ perception |
|---|---|---|---|
Negotiation | Men | WFHH | You have no option but to get the necessities for the children, yet the man does not even recognize that contribution. He wants to be bought something saying that the pig was reared on his land. That we should at least buy a shirt for him |
Women | WMHH | It’s the man because in the first place he was the one who bought the pig. However, if I tell him to sell the pigs because we have a need like school fees and he refuses, then I give up… maybe he has idea where the school fees will come from | |
Men and women | WFHH | There are families who sit and agree on selling the pig in order to solve the family problems, but they are few. They discuss: we have this debt, let us clear it first | |
Bargaining | Women | WFHH | In the story, the man wanted to buy a suit while the woman was looking into the future. Where would they get the school fees from? Yet she also needed the clothes. However, she could see there was no other way of getting the school fees. There was unfairness, since the man insisted he had to get what he wanted without thinking about the woman’s needs. The piglet which was to cater for the school fees was not his concern. The woman had to give in, she could not insist because then she would not be able to get the school fees |
Women | WFHH | You ignore him you ignore him and say, let me have my children go to school instead of getting nothing out of it. Because the man in the scenario was not realistic. He was selfish | |
Evasion | Men | WMHH | I want to respond to the gentleman who said that men are the head of a family and that women ask everything from them. It’s true but the reason why we ask them everything is that men are not transparent with their money. For example when we harvest coffee, it’s them that sell it and they can never tell how much they got out of the sales, when sell pigs, matooke [cooking bananas] or anything they can never tell the [amount of] money they get. Thus as women, we are left in suspense with no information and they are the reasons why we keep on asking needs from them. Yet if they sold and we sit on a round table and everything is explained, then suspicions wouldn’t arise because both parties would be having info on where the money went |
WMHH | WFHH | Yes, the woman will not…try not to publicize the marketing, because she does not want the man to know how much [the pig] was sold for | |
WMHH | WMHH | …the reason why we don’t tell the money we get as women, sometimes our husbands are not home and leave little money that can’t meet all the basic needs. Thus 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 | |
Men and women | Men | The reason why we don’t tell women how we spend our money; women are also not transparent either. 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 | |
Exclusion | WMHH | WFHH | If the woman gets money[and] buys an animal and involves the husband in the management, it ends up becoming his. That is the beginning of the problems. Thus, it is wise not to involve him in the running of the project. [Husbands] always use such statements: ‘do not put up your project here if we are not going to share the proceeds’ |
Resistance | Men | WFHH | The man can ask the wife why she is asking him for money. The man can suggest that she sells one of the pigs, but in a way of suppressing the woman. Yet it was not the woman’s wish |
WMHH | WFHH | [Facilitator: Just like in the story you have heard. Are there families like that in your communities?] It used to be like that, but it has changed these days We hear women and men quarrelling over the animals. Quarrelling that he sold the animal when she had taken it for breeding! We hear of a lot of disagreements | |
Resistance and manipulation | WMHH | Men | For instance of recent my pigs gave birth to twelve piglets and even [my] wife’s sow gave birth. But when time came for a doctor’s visit, my wife doesn’t want to meet doctors’ bills and she wants me to pay the doctor always, yet she also owns pigs |
Manipulation | Men | WMHH | Another thing is that men are not always at home thus we find ourselves doing everything, even when the pigs belong to the man. You can’t let [the pigs] starve thus we ought to look after the pigs either ours or not ours |
Manipulation and deception | WMHH | Men | I want to respond to the women where they said that we don’t meet some needs and they meet them. They do it in a wrong way. If as the husband I have been able to pay school fees, pens and books and the money gets finished, then it not good for you as a mother to take your child aside and tell him or her that your father didn’t buy A B C D but here they are. It’s good to chip in but do it openly because this may create differences and misunderstanding between children and fathers. As a mother, bring all what you have so that it can be complemented by what the father has so as to meet all the needs of our child instead of doing it separately |
Deception | Men | Men | For smooth run of a family, there must be necessary lies when it comes to issues of income and expenditures for both parties… |
Men | Men | Ooh Doc, such scenarios are very in our communities especially when it comes to money handling. Men have not been true, sincere and honest to their women. Sometime when women sell pigs, their husbands borrow money from them but they never pay back | |
Men | WFHH | Sometimes men can be having their own animals for example pigs and even women do have theirs. He can say that we sell off yours and leave his to remain in order to solve his financial problem. He leaves his, saying that yours looks bad, or it is old | |
Deception and evasion | Men and women | WMHH | …men don’t discuss issues concerning their homes but rather just act or just make decisions without asking. And that is why we give our children money/needs in silence |
WMHH | A man says: It is good for the women to do their hair. We agree to that and we like it. It gives us pride. We even feel good for sponsoring it. But where does the money come from? It does not come from the streets, yet you do not sell pigs every day. Then how is it that when you sell a pig you remove the hair from the priority list? Where she gets the money from is what she is not telling us A WFHH replies: What she does is this; when she gets money, she does not spend all of it. She keeps some, and you can’t know it. So she can use some of it when need arises Another WFHH adds:…a woman always keeps some money which they use when the man says he has no money |