ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine the changing role of women in Cameroon and their contributions to the domestic economy. It argues that the increasing participation of women in the process of national development is designed to foster a more equitable distribution of individual and collective power through increased cash income and decision-making. The chapter focuses on women in two different ecological zones of Cameroon, one, as active participants in the economy located in the unorganised sector as Small Evening Market traders; the other as farm hands in a largely agricultural development project in the Ndop Plain. In 1922 Yaounde was chosen as the capital of French Cameroon. With an increasing urban population and the relatively large foreign presence, the organisation of urban food supplies was critical, requiring the intervention of local elites to ensure that Yaounde was fed. In Cameroon, rural women actively participate in trade and marketing of family produce, including poultry and other livestock.
