Does the gender order of an ecotourism camp in Botswana have the potential to subvert broader gender orders? Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder Human Sciences Research Council Africa Institute of South Africa University of Johannesburg
Gender Order? Tourism’s subversive potential
Botswana’s National Ecotourism Strategy • Explicitly states that the impacts of (eco)tourism are financial, social and environmental • Positive and negative host-social and cultural impacts • ““tourism development can lead to changes in family structure and gender roles • - resulting in new opportunities for women and young people/ • leading to tensions and loss of self-esteem for men and older generations”
Does labour in Botswana’s ecotourism lodges subvert broader gender orders which shape how labour and life are organised generally? If so/not, how?
Theory • Gluckmann’s “Total Social Organisation of Labour” • Acker’s “Inequality regime” • Bifurcated discourses and identifying taken for granted assumptions – Noting subversion
Methods • 45 participants in total • Semi-structured interviews (40) • Work at the camp (28) • Not related to camp (17)
• Family tree drawings (22) • Participant observations • Challenges and opportunities
Locating the research • Meno A Kwena, Central District • Boteti River • Cattle and wildlife • Scarcity of paid employment • High mobility • Environmental changes • Reduced provisions Photo credit: Africa’s Finest; Makgadikgadi Zebra Migration Research
Female Identity
Masculine and national Identity
Broader Gender Order
Status and cultural symbol
Centrality of grandmothers Child care chain
Cattle care chains
Most established work binary
Cattle Care
Child Care
Importance of extended family in accessing paid employment
Camp Gender Order 27 jobs; 1,000-10,000 Pula; racial and gendered hierarchy
Most established work binary “Because they are stronger”
Maintenance Men
Housekeepin g women
“It’s what they do at home”
Unpacking the discourses
Photo credit: Elephants without borders
Men are stronger and therefore have more skill
Space and Mobili ty
Women are static/Men are mobile
Subver sion?
Low interaction and opportunity
Streng th
Maybe the difficult question now becomes not whether the subversion potential has been lost but whether it was ever there to begin with?
Thank you • Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder • Chirtenfelder@hsrc.ac.za • Towne@live.co.za