ABSTRACT
Women in sub-Saharan Africa have a long history of participation in income-generating
activities, albeit in the informal sector of the economy. However, better educational and
economic opportunities coupled with urbanization and industrialization have led to their
growing participation in formal wage employment. A significant number of these women
are mothers involved in dual-earner families whereas a minority are heads of single
parent families. The constraints of formal wage employment, such as lack of flexibility
and changing gender roles, suggest that employed parents in sub-Saharan Africa face the
challenge of balancing work and family just like their counterparts in the developed
economies of the West and increasingly in Asia. However, unlike their counterparts
elsewhere, there is a paucity of research on the dynamics of the work-family interface in
sub-Saharan Africa. Lewis and Cooper (1999, 389) noted that:
In the context of globalization of markets, the growth of multinational
organizations and technological advances, not only work and family but also
national and cultural boundaries are disappearing. It will be increasingly
important for the work-family agenda to recognize the different ways in which
work and family issues are constructed cross-nationally.
