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Abstract
Excerpts: The purpose of this study is to illuminate the effects of the 1970s-80 drought and of male migration on the condition of Mauritanian women, in order to indicate potential income-generating programs for women. The study was originally designed on the basis of several hypotheses. The first of these fundamental hypotheses was that drought and migration have caused unprecedented disruptions to Mauritanian society. A second was that women, through male migration, are either abandoned or become de facto heads-of-household. An ambiguous term, 'head-of-household' usually denotes the person who either financially sustains the household, manages the household, or both. Finally, the study assumed that Mauritanian women desire income-generating activities and that they and their problems can be presented under one common rubric. During the course of the study we found instead that neither drought nor migration are peculiar to the Mauritania of the 1970s-80. On the contrary, specific regions of Mauritania have suffered cyclical droughts for centuries, and male migration is integral to both pastoral arid sedentary production systems. Consequently, these societies have refined their social institutions to conserve and protect their traditions through change. One of these traditions, which is found especially in the Toucouleur and Soninke societies, is patriarchal decision-making. While women cultivators of these societies may now be laboring more, decisions on use of remittances, agricultural investment, land transfers and sales are consistently made by males of the extended family. This result is less paradoxical given the continued flexibility of the extended family as both a political and productive unit.