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 AFROL
Gender Profiles:
Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire for a long time has been seen as one of Africa's
most stable countries, determined to modernise and end its state of
underdevelopment. Its heavy dependence on agricultural export
products, however, brutally exposed the country to fluctuating world
market prices, in general sinking for the last decades. With a
failing economy, added with the instability in neighbouring
countries, stagnation and political instability have brandmarked
Côte d'Ivoire lately. After a military coup d'état in 1999 and the
violent elections in October 2000, the
country now seeks its road back to democracy, and expectations are
great with regard to social, political and economic reform.
Ivorian women are confined to traditional roles, especially in rural
areas.
Women who are victims of rape or domestic violence often are ignored when they attempt to bring the violence to the attention of the
police.
About 60% of women undergo the practice of Female Genital
Mutilation. Each woman averagely gives birth to 5,8 children (2000 est.)
Social data
Life expectancy: Total population: 45,15 years
male: 43,72 years
female: 46,63 years (2000 est.)
Alphabetization rate: Total population: 48,5%
male: 57%
female: 40%
Medical services: 60% of the population have access to medical services.
(11.111 persons per doctor)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1,03 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1,01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1,06 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1 male(s)/female
total population: 1,03 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
Religious data: Muslim 60%, traditional African religions 18% (some of these are also numbered among the Christians and Muslims), Christian
22%
Family and tradition
Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, or religion is prohibited by law, but in practice women occupy a subordinate role in society.
There is a parental preference for educating boys rather than girls, which is noticeable throughout the country but more pronounced in rural areas.
In rural areas, women and men divide the labor, with men clearing the land and attending to cash crops like cocoa and coffee, while women grow vegetables and other staples and perform most menial household tasks.
The practice of Female Genital Mutilation is common, especially
among the rural population in the north and the west. Spousal abuse (usually wife beating) occurs frequently.
Domestic violence is regarded as a family problem.
Gender sensitivity in society
Government policy encourages full participation by women in social and economic life, but there is considerable informal resistance among employers to hiring women, whom they consider less dependable because of their potential pregnancy. Women are underrepresented in some professions and in the managerial sector as a whole. Some women also encounter difficulty in obtaining loans, as they cannot meet the lending criteria mandated by banks. These criteria include such elements as title to a house and production of profitable cash crops, specifically coffee and cocoa. However, women in the formal sector are paid on an equal scale with men.
Health data
Access to potable water: 42%
Medical services: 60% of the population have access to medical services.
(11.111 persons per doctor)
Maternal mortality rate: 810/100.000
Infant mortality: 95,06 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): 60% of females undergo this
procedure.
Female genital mutilation, which is widely condemned by international health experts as damaging to both physical and psychological health, is a serious problem. Until 1998 there was no law that specifically prohibited FGM, which was considered illegal only as a violation of general laws prohibiting crimes against persons. However, the Law Concerning Crimes against Women enacted in December 1998 specifically forbids FGM and makes those who perform it subject to criminal penalties of imprisonment for up to 5 years and a fine of from roughly $650 to $3,500 (360,000 to 2 million CFA francs); double penalties apply for medical practitioners. FGM is practiced particularly among the rural population in the north and west and to a lesser extent in the center. The procedure usually is performed on young girls or at puberty as part of a rite of passage; it is almost always done outside modern medical facilities, and techniques and hygiene do not meet modern medical standards. According to the World Health Organization and the Ivorian Association for the Defense of Women (AIDF), as many as 60 percent of women have undergone FGM. Since the law on FGM was enacted in December 1998, 6 girls in Abidjan's Port Bouet district were mutilated, and police and social workers neither acted to prevent the mutilation nor to arrest the girls' parents.
Women's advocacy organizations have sponsored campaigns against FGM, forced marriage, and marriage of minors, patterns of inheritance that exclude women, and other practices considered harmful to women and girls. In 1997 the Ministry of the Family and Women's Affairs organized a seminar on FGM. In some areas traditional authorities, who generally have upheld the practice, began to take part in public demonstrations against FGM.
Violence against women
Representatives of the Ivorian Association for the Defense of Women (AIDF) state that spousal abuse (usually wife beating) occurs frequently and often leads to divorce. A July 1998 AIDF survey found that many women refused to discuss their experience of domestic violence; of women who completed the AIDF interview process, nearly 90 percent had been beaten or struck on at least one occasion. Doctors state that they rarely see the victims of domestic violence. A severe social stigma is attached to such violence, and neighbors often intervene in a domestic quarrel to protect a woman who is the known object of physical abuse. The courts and police view domestic violence as a family problem, unless serious bodily harm is inflicted, or the victim lodges a complaint, in which case they may initiate criminal proceedings. Women's advocacy groups have protested the indifference of authorities to female victims of violence and called attention to domestic violence and female genital mutilation (FGM). The groups also reported that women who are the victims of rape or domestic violence often are ignored when they attempt to bring the violence to the attention of the police. The Government does not collect statistics on the rape or other physical abuse of women. The Government has no clear policy regarding spousal abuse beyond the strictures against violence in the civil code. In December 1998, the National Assembly enacted the Law Concerning Crimes against Women, which forbids and provides criminal penalties for forced or early marriage and sexual harassment, but says nothing about spousal abuse. In July the AIDF launched a petition drive to pressure the authorities to enact and enforce laws against domestic violence, especially spousal abuse; 18,000 petitions were collected by year's end. The AIDF also is active in opposing forced marriage and advancing the rights of female domestic workers.
Cities, especially Abidjan, have large populations of street children. Some children are employed as domestics and are subject to sexual abuse, harassment, and other forms of mistreatment by their employers, according to the AIDF and press reports.
In part to combat low enrollment rates for girls, in January 1998 the Government instituted new measures against statutory rape of students by school teachers. The Minister of National Education stated then that almost one-third of the 66 percent primary and secondary school dropout rate was attributable to pregnancies, and that many of the sexual partners of female students were teachers, to whom girls sometimes granted sexual favors in return for good grades or money.
Main sources: U.S. Department of State, CIA,
UN, HRW, Mundo negro
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