Women in Ivory Coast

Women in Ivory Coast
	Woman in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 2007
General Statistics
Maternal mortality (per 100,000)	400 (2010)
Women in parliament	11.0% (2012)
Women over 25 with secondary education	13.7% (2010)
Women in labour force	51.8% (2011)
Gender Inequality Index
Value	0.613 (2021)
Rank	155th out of 191
Global Gender Gap Index
Value	0.632 (2022)
Rank	133rd out of 146

Women in Ivory Coast formed less than half the country's population in 2003.^[3] Their social roles and opportunities have changed since the time of French colonialism.

From independence in 1960, women's status under the law was inferior to that of men, and this continued until the 1990s. The legal changes following President's Félix Houphouët-Boigny death brought improvement in legal and educational opportunities for women at all levels, and women have been moving into the highest levels of business and government.

Cultural traditions and practices, too, have usually marked women for inferior status. While adherence to traditional roles persists, this continuity—as well as the traditions themselves—vary greatly with place and social context. Ivory Coast has more than 60 ethnic groups, usually classified into five principal divisions: Akan (east and center, including the "Lagoon peoples" of the southeast), Krou (southwest), Mandé (Mandé west and Mandé northwest groups), and Senufo-Lobi (north center and northeast). Each of these groups has its own traditional roles for women, as do the religions practised in the country (Christian 20–30 percent, Muslim 15–20 percent, indigenous 35–50 percent).

Today's northern Ivory Coast was at the periphery of the Mali Empire and the great medieval states of the Sahel, while with Portuguese (from the 1460s) and later French colonial expansion, women of the southern regions experienced wars of colonialism and resistance firsthand. In the 1970s, Ivory Coast was considered the economic leader of West Africa, but since the 1990s, poverty and conflict have increased, at times affecting women disproportionately. The interplay of all these experiences has transformed the social roles of women in Ivorian society.

The main issue of gender equality in Ivory Coast is education. According to CIA World Factbook, the literacy rate in Ivory Coast in total is 43.1%. 53.1% of males can read and write and only 32.5% of females can read and write. This shows that more than half of men can read, and less than half of women can read. It also states that the school life expectancy for males is ten years, whereas for girls it is eight years. So far, no specific organizations have helped women education in Ivory Coast. However, many organizations have helped education for women in Africa as a whole, such as Africa Education Trust and Aid for Africa.

In order for women's education to be as equal as the men's in Ivory Coast, the government must provide more schools for free, so that the people do not think about financial issues once they put their child at school, and so the parents can afford to put both their sons and daughters in school. Education is free in Ivory Coast, but the parents must provide the school supplies, which might be a challenge if they have more than one child (Our Africa). This might lessen the need for women to go to school. For this to happen, the people must inform the government and if they refuse, protest. Education is a basic right everyone should afford, no matter the gender.

By making education supplies free, it takes one more weight off of the adult's shoulders. This would ensure that more women will have an education. By doing this, the child labor would lessen, children will have a good education and in the future, they will be more likely to have a job. This will make the citizens of Africa's lives much easier in terms of finances and education.

^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
^ "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
^ "Overview: Côte d'Ivoire Data extracted "from the publication Country Profiles for Population and Reproductive Health, Policy Developments and Indicators 2005, produced jointly by UNFPA and Population Reference Bureau."". United Nations Population Fund. Retrieved 2008-04-03.

[1] "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 22 December 2022.

[2] "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 1 March 2023.

[UNFPA-2003-3] "Overview: Côte d'Ivoire Data extracted "from the publication Country Profiles for Population and Reproductive Health, Policy Developments and Indicators 2005, produced jointly by UNFPA and Population Reference Bureau."". United Nations Population Fund. Retrieved 2008-04-03.

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