Ghana - Gender and Generation: Understanding the Dynamics in Migrant Households

Abstract

As more women migrate within Ghana and to destinations abroad, there is an increasing attention to women’s rights and the abuses and discrimination faced by women on the move. However, less attention has been paid to how migration impacts upon gender roles, relations and the development and wellbeing of households left behind. Our research will build on work that has gone before to explore how migration affects the hierarchies and roles within households. It will look at the gendered ways in which remittances are sent and received and whether this differs if the migrant family member remains within Ghana or travels abroad. We will be able to learn more about how remittances are spent and invested and how this affects the life choices of the members of migrant households, for example in terms of educating their children. Information and communication technologies have such a large impact on migratory processes we will therefore look at how they are used to help people keep in touch, to send money and to support and perhaps alter social relations.