Issue fact sheet no.9: Work for women

fact sheet

Description and analysis Depending on the local custom, women may have a pre-dictated role in their society as the home-carer, in charge of children, cooking, cleaning and so on. Some women are happy in these roles, others are not. This is an issue all over the world, in developed and developing countries alike. While it may seem the developed world is ahead in this subject, the developing world has been catching up very quickly, with many communities forming groups of women who want to work as well as look after the home. It is not necessarily the idea of working women that is progressive, so much as the freedom of choice. But for the choice to be real, opportunities for work must be available.

Design response

Parry technology has proven to be a simple and effective way of creating livelihoods on the local scale using local resources. It is for this reason that our technology is ideal for setting up businesses for minority groups. For women's groups it is an ideal opportunity for work where for those who still want to carry out family duties, do not have to be too far from home, unlike if they were to seek employment in the city. More importantly the business can be used to improve their local situation by building schools and homes.

Parry Associates technical input possibilities

We can supply machines and training, and we can also provide support towards architectural design and project formation. We have also helped to set up national standards of building projects.

Local resources required

Principally labour (to be trained), clays, sands, gravels and laterites also limited possibility of using straight growing poles in substitution for sawn timber for roof structures.

Potential local business response

Besides making products to improve their own local area, after those more pressing concerns have been met there is the opportunity for the production plant to become an ongoing enterprise, providing building materials products for other villages.

For relevant photographs of Parry activity in this field see our Photograph Archive.

Other fact sheets are available on:
Import Substitution : Livelihoods for the disabled : Mud and dust in hospitals, schools and offices : Low energy construction : Living with floods : Rural economic development and stability : Reviving a war-torn economy and providing employment for ex-combatants : Quality housing at low cost : Work for women : Roof structures without using timber : Living with diurnal extremes : Living with environmental extremes : Being prepared for the next Earthquake

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