METHODOLOGY

This study sets out to question patriarchy, which refers to an arrangement of concepts, norms, values, and institutional and behavioral patterns that maintain male dominance. The study also draws attention to the link between women’s lived experiences and their position within male-dominated social spheres. The focus of this study is about the challenges of women trying to hold jobs in non-traditional employment sectors or in male-dominated spaces. The variables that resist women’s entry into areas of non-traditional employment are rooted in particular patterns of society acting in concert to limit women’s participation. The separate spheres ideology, the concept of a ‘public man’ and a ‘private woman’, has been naturalized through the gendering of structures that have not only designated spaces for men and women, but have also determined distinct characteristics for masculinity and femininity. Women who do not adhere to these distinct ideas of femininity are stigmatized as embodying ‘masculine’ traits. Women are unable to actively participate in vocational education and employment because these areas are seen as solely masculine domains.

This study maintains that the nation-state is complicit in crafting the boundaries of what is public and private and also, the conceptions of citizenship that produce and uphold racialized, gendered, and sexualized hierarchies of power.1 Borrowing this perception of the nation, this report will identify the way in which the nation preserves hierarchies and fortifies new avenues of marginalization. However, the use of gender alone as a lens of analysis conceals other variables. An intersectional analysis is needed to acknowledge the joint action of systems of oppression on the basis of gender, race, class, sexuality and regional location, by highlighting how aspects of identity intersect and inform power structures. In recognizing the heterogeneous nature of Sudanese citizens, an examination of how Sudanese women across racial, ethnic and class lines experience access and opportunities necessitates an intersectional approach. It is important to note that this does not assume an all-encompassing analysis of Sudanese women’s experiences. Rather, this approach will look at questions centered on how categories of Sudanese women experience access and opportunities differently.

In order to account for the various dimensions of social change such as alterations in norms

¹Hawkesworth, M. (2012). Political Worlds of Women: Activism, Advocacy, and Governance in the Twenty-First Century. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

and values, change in performance and practice, and modifications in the public and private spheres, a closer look at the micro-level must take place. As it was too early to assess the concrete shift in policy made as a result of BGS Phase II, changes in perceptions, behaviors and attitudes were assessed through means of interviewing. This was the primary method of data collection and included six semi-structured interviews with employers and employees at the Khartoum 3 Industrial Area, with public and governmental representatives at the Ministry of Education, and with members of the Khartoum Employment office. There were also brainstorming sessions with SIHA staff and three focus group discussions with BGS participants, Vocational Training Staff and SIHA partners (Sudanese Women’s Union, SPCR, Trade Union Employers Network). In addition, there were two interviews with community members (employers, family, neighbors) of women participants who were employed following their training. In this way, the research included accounts of women’s lived experiences as well as the perspective of other actors. The interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in Arabic and followed a semi-structured format, meaning they were guided by a set of focus questions but remained flexible to emerging themes. Focus-group discussions and interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Alert to the ethical considerations required for interviews, consent forms were drafted and signed by the participants. It should be noted that data was collected following the revolution that led to the fall of the Islamist regime in April 2019 and also, after the removal of the public order regime in January 2020. Thus, the public order laws were still in place, during the period of time when the project overlapped with the regime’s final months. Finally, this research recognizes that the political shift in Sudan between the time of the project and data collection may have influenced the perceptions of respondents. In mediating this, the analysis acknowledges this factor when interpreting data and does not attempt to remove responses from the larger conversations happening in the state.