52

DJ  FAOTOHT  BflPLOYMEHT;  A  PASS

By

Eugenia  Date-Ban*

The  advent  of  Ghanaian  women  in  industrial  employment  is  a new
phenomenon..  Their  traditional  economic, activities  have been  trading
and  farming.  With  respect  to  trade,  Bosenip  (i97Os87)  reports  that
80 per  cent  of  Ghana's  labour  force,  both.&h  the  village  and  in  the
city,  is  made up  of ':vsiQm&i  (also  see  McCall,  19^1).  This  would  imply
that  Ghanaian  -women have  always  vrorked  outside  the  home  to  support
themselves,  although  not  as  industrial  employees but  as  self-employed.
The  -women who participate  in  trade  and  farming  are  mostly  i l l i t e r a t e.
With  increasing  education  ,  however,  the  educated  Ghanaian  women  are

branching  out  into  other  employment  areas  -  mostly  nursing  and

2 

1

teaching  and  a  few  of  them  into  factory  work  •  This  paper  examines,
among other  things,  the  characteristics  of  Ghanaian  women  in  factory
employment  and  whether  there  are  any  differences  with  respect  to  work
behaviour,  between  these  women  and  their  male  counterparts  working
in  the  same  factory.

The  data  to  be  discussed  here  are  extracted  from  a  study
conducted  from  July  1972  to  March  1973,  of  a  group  of  Ghanaian
factory  workers  with  the  main  aim of  providing  a  further  test  of  the
Industrial  man  hypothesis  in  the  Ghanaian  setting.  These  workers
were  the  employees  of  a  Ghanaian  State  Garment  Factory  situated  in
Accra.  Althou^i  it  was  a  case  -  study,  the  employees  of  three
private  garment  factories  were  also  looked  at.  Therefore,  where
appropriate,  comparisons  will  be  made between  the  employees  of  the
state  and  private  factories.

Forty  ei^it  per  cent  of  the  state  factory's  283  employees  and
between  a  half  and  a  third  of  those  in  two  of  the  private  factories
consisted  of  women.  If  we  accept  Moore  and  Feldman's  view  (1960*85)

53

that  none  good  test  of  the  degree  of  commitment  of  a  labour  force
is  the  per  cent age  of  it  comprised  by  women11,  then  this  Ghanaian
labour  force  could  be  described  as  committed.  However,  as  Lambert
(1963»85)  points  out,  the  proportion  of  women  in  a  labour  force
sometimes  is  not  related  to  the  choice  of  the  vjomen  concerned  nor
of  their  families,  but  upon  the  vailing!ess  of  the  employer  to  hire
them.  For  example?  in  the  third  private  factory  looked  at  in  the
study  there  were  only  3  women  out  of  a  labour  force  of  65 because  of
a  deliberate  policy  of  the  management  not  to  employ  many  women  owing
to  the  amount  of  working  time  lost  through  the  maternity  leaves  of
women  employees.

F?vctory  jobs,  however,  have  been  described  as  not  attractive  to

Ghanaian  women  as  self-employment  (see  Peil  I972as  36)  because  it
requires  working  regular  hours  and  also  because  of  the  scarcity  of
It  would  .appear  then  that
day  nurseries  where  children  can  be  left. 
the  garment  factories  studied  are  exceptional  in  having  a  high  pro*,
portion  of  women  employees-  Peil,  however,  mentions  sewing  as  among
the  occupations  in  which  Ghanaian  -930men  are  mostly  found  and  since
sewing  is  the  main  work  done  in  these  factories,  it  is  not  surprising
then  that  they  have  such  a  high  proportion  of  female  workers*

It  is  true  to  some  extent  that  most  Ghanaian  women  with  skills,

like  sewing,  seem  to  prefer  self-employment  to  wage-employment.
Almost  two  thirds  of  the  seamstresses  in  all  the  factories  investi-
gated  began  their  sewing  career  in  self-employment.  Self-employment
attracts  Ghanaian  woman because  it  allows  the  married  woman  some
flexibility  s  she  can  leave  her  work  without  any  fuss  to  attend  to
home  duties  like  children  and  husband  when  the  need  arises.  She
can  thus  work  shorter  hours  or  fewer  days  in  the  month  (cf.  Boserup
1970s 115),  the  kind  of  freedom  denied  her  counterpart  in  v/age-
employment  in  the  factory.  Self-employment,  however,  has  a  dis-
advantage,  namely  the  irregularity  of  the  income  derived  from  i t.

54

Many  of  the  seamstresses  interviewed  gave  this  as  their  reason  for

entering  into  regular  wage  employment.

Marital  Status

Most  of  the  Ghanaian  factory  women  studied  were  married  and

thus  differed  from  the  Ugandan  factory  women  studied  by  Blkan
(i955°4i)  mho  were  reported  to  have  had  marital  disruptions.  However,
these  Ghanaian  workers  needed  regular  income because  their  husbands
were  mostly  in  working  class  or  low  middle  class  jobs  like  the  typist,
driver  and  clerk.  The  women1 s  regular  income  was  thus  necessary  to
supplement  t h e ir  husbands1  small  pay  packets.  There  were  very  few
of  the  husbands  in  upper  class  occupations  like  managers.  5br
example,  one  female  junior  superivisor  in  the.  state  factory  had  a
husband  who  was  an  Assistant  Manager  with  the  State  Cocoa Marketing
Board,  There  was,  however,  one  case  where  the  husband  Y/as unemployed,
ao  the  seamstress  had  to  use  her  factory  income  to  feed  and  clothe
the  husband  as  well  as  the  children.  Also  for  most  of  the  women,
their  work  was necessary  so  that  they  could  support  some members.of
their  extended  family  especially  mothers,  brothers  and  sisters.  A
fifth  of  the  women  were  divorced,  separated  or  widowed.  These  needed
their  factory  income  to  live  on. 
Ibr  example,  when  the  marriage  of  a
thirty  year  old  Kwahu  seamstress  broke  dowi,  she  learned  tailoring
from  an  aunt  and  found  employment  in  the  factory  as  a  seamstress*
There  was  also  the  case  of  a  woman  from  the  Volt a  Region  who  learned
tailoring  in  her  youth  but  gat  married  immediately  after  her  training
and became  a  full-time  housewife. 
T.7hen  she  divorced  her  husband  and
the  l a t t er  took  away  the  sewing machine  he  had  given  her,  she  found
employment  in  the  factory.  A further  fifth  of  the  women  were  in
polygamous marriages.  This  could  be  explained  in  terns  of  the  fact
that  it  is  easier  for  a  woman  to  leave  home  to  work,  if  there  are
co-wives  at  home  to  serve  the  husband  (McCall  1961?293)»

55

Children

Most  of  the  vKjomen  were  v/ithin  their  child  "bearing  period.

Therefore,  the  married  3nd  even  some- of  those  who  were  not  currently
married  had  small  children  but  were  in  full-time  wage  employment  with
i ts  regular  hours  of  work.  This  was helped  by  the  fact  that  they  had
they  had  parents,  grandparents,  maidservants  and  other  relatives  to
look  after  their  children  for  them  while  at  work.  This  would  seem  to
suggest  that  the  Ghanaian  kinship  system  makes  it  easier  in  a  country
where  nurseries  are  so  few  for  these  wDmen  to  enter  into  full-time
wage  employment.  The  fact  that  the  Ghanaian  woman  in  wage  employment
continues  in  regular  employment  even  though  she  has  small  children
represaits  one  point  of  difference  between  her  and  her  counterpart  in
Britain  and  the  other  western  industrialised  countries  where  married
•women tend  to  leave  employment  during  their  chilclbearing  period  (or
take  up  part  time  employment)  althou,r£i  some may  re-enter  vjhon  the
children  reach  school  gping  age  (see  Klein  -]JoO;  1961  and  19&3?
Confederation  of  British  Industry  1967). 
Ghanaian  women  factory  employees  cannot  be  described  as  "birds  of
passage  in  industry"  as  Lupton  (19^5° 191)  does  in.  connection  with
the  British  women  in  industry.  One  attraction  of  the  factory  for
i ts  married  female  employees  is  i ts  shift  system  which  permits  them
not  to  spend  the  whole  day  in  the  factory.  During  the  interviews,
some  of  the  women mentioned  that  they  liked  the  shift  system  because
it  left  them  time  to  do. their  house  work.

In  this  sense,  then,

The  average  age  of  the  women  in  the  state  factory  was  33 years.

This  was  slightly  lower  than  that  of  their  male  counterparts  which
was  36.  Generally?  however,  the  average  age  of  both  the  men  and
women  employees  in  the  state  factory  was higher  than  in  most  Ghanaian

factories  (see Pe.il  I972as  39) and in  the three  private  garment
factories  studied.  This  high  average  age is  explicable  in  terns
of  the nature  of  the state  factory's  labour  force,  i ts  history and
i ts  turnover  rate.  The employees -we re  skilled  workers  and Peil  found
(i972as  43) in her study  that  the median  age of  skilled  workers was
above  the median  age for a ll the- other  workers*  However,  the workers
in  the 3 private  factories  were  just  as  ski lied-trained  tailors .and
seamstresses  -  as those  in the state  factory,  yet the fomer  had a
lower  average  age (28, 3O and 26 respectively).  This  would  seem to
imply  that  the hi$i  average  age of  the state  factory's  employees  is
explicable  in  t e ms  of other  factors*

The  state  factory,  unlike  the private  ones  in the study, was
established  in  1962 and this  makes  it  quite  old in  a  country  where
factories  are mostly  of very  recent  origin  (Date-Ban  1972s86).  In
addition,  i ts  labour  turnover  has been  low.  This  means  that
although  the state  factory's  employees  were  recruited  young,  they
had  grown  old on the job.  The l a t t er  factor  is  related  to  their
comparatively  long,  laagth  of  service  in  the factory  (8.6 years).
This  is illustrated  in Table  1.

Table  I

The  Distribution  of the Employees  in the State
Factory  by len/?bh  of  service  and sex (percentages)

Laigth  of  Service

Male

Female

Total

1  year  or  less
2-5  years
6-10  years

11+ years*

Total

.  N

4
5
77
14
100
146

3
8
84
5
•jOO

135

3
7
78
12
100
281

57

In  contrast  to  this,  in  the  three  private  factories  the  average
length  of  service  was  3?  4  ?nd  3 years  respectively.  The  employees'
short  length  of  service  in  2  of  these  factories  is  due  to  high  labour
turnover  while  that  in  the  last  factory  is  explicable  in  terms  of  i ts
short  history.  As Peil  has  said, 
factories,  in  those  factories  experiencing  high  turnover"  (i972as  39)•

riworkers  will  "be younger  in  new

Education

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  educated  Ghanaian  women  tend

not  to  participate  in  trading  and  fanning,  the  traditional  economic
activities  of  Ghanaian  women,  but  seek  employment  in  the  modem
economic  sector.  Thus  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  most  of  the
women  found  in  the  factories  covered  in  this  study  were  educated.
The majority  have  had  ten  years  of  education.  Perhaps  this  is
explicable  in  teims  of  a  deliberate  recruitment  policy  of  these
garment  factories  to  employ  only  educated  people  since  the  work
done  in  them  demands  ability  to  read  and measure.  For  example,  the
few  tailors  end. seamstresses  with  no  formal  education,  have  some
•working knowledge  of  reading  these  measurements*

This  high  proportion  of  educated  people,  both  men  and  women,

among the  employees  is  in  complete  contrast  to  their  parents,  a
majority  of  whom are  i l l i t e r a t e.  This  is  explicable  in  terms  of
tvjo  factors  -  a  general  increase  in  the  country's  literacy  rate  and
the  different  kinds  of  job  engaged  in  by  the  parents.  About  two
and  a  half  decades  ago,  only  4  per  cent  of  the  total  Ghanaian
population  (Gold  Coast  Census  1948s  18)  was  educated  but  in  1970  as
much  as  44  per  cent  was  educated  (1970  Ghana Population  Census,  Vol.
11sxxiv).  This  expansion  has  meant  that  more  of  the  younger  people
including  the  fempJLe  have  received  education.  Again  unlike  these
workers,  the  parents  are  mostly  farmers  and  traders; 
the  mothers
following  the  well-known  occupation  of  Ghanaian  viiomen  are  in  trade

and  the  fathers  in  fanning.  Compared  to  their  paraits  then,  those
factory  women  have  achieved  considerable  inter-gene rational  mobility
in  education  and  job  done.

3h  this  respect  they  are  similar  to  their  male  counterparts.
However,  apart  from  the  fact  that  they  are  both  first  generation
wage-earners,  the  women  were  in  the  main,  in  their  first  or  second
full-time  job  while  the  men  tended  to  have  had  longer  ri/ork  history
and  were  thus  in  their  third,  fourth  or  fifth  jobs. 
It  wruld  appear
that  compared  to  the  men,  most  of  the  women  tended  to  have no  previous
experience  of  wage  employment  since  even  those  who had  had  jobs  before
their  present  one,  had  been  in  self-employment.

How socialized  then  have  these  women  been  in  the  conditions  and

ways  of  factory  employment?  How committed  are  they  to  factory
employment?  These  two  questions  will  be  answered  by  looking  at
certain  indices  of  the  vaomen's  work  behaviour  like  absenteeism,
lateness,  turnover.

.Absenteeism,  Lateness  and  Turnover

iO-though  the  absenteeism  rate  of  the  State  Factory1 s  employees

It  was  found  that  that  for  the  women
was  gaierally  not  hi^h  (7»5$0« 
was  higher  than  that  for  their  male  counterparts.  The  women's  total
absence  rate  was  9 per  cent  while  that  of  the  men  was only  4  per  cent.
Behrend  (i95i)  also  found  a  similar  thing  with  regard  to  the  women  in
the  51  factories  she  studied  in  Britain.  She  reports  that  the
absenteeism  rate  of  the  British  women  was  5  "to  9  VQT  cent,  while  that
for  the  men  was  3» 5 to  5 per  cent. 
regard  to  the  rate  of  absenteeism  there  is  no  difference  between  these
Ghanaian  factory  women  and  their  British  counterparts.

It  would'  seem  then  that  with

Two  reasons  have  been  put  forward  by  Argyle,  Gardner  and  Cioffi

to  explain 

this  high  incidence  of  women's  absences?

59

i)  Absonteeism  is  higher  amour, unskilled  workers  and

since  women  tend,  to  have  less  skilled  jobs,  this
explains  why  they  have  a  high  absenteeism  rate.
i i)  ' It  may be  due  in  part  to  domestic  affairs  which

impinge  on  women,  especially  married  women,  more
than  on  men.

The  first  explanation  does  not  account  for  the
higher  absence  rate  among  the  female  employees  in
this  Ghanaian  factory  since  almost  a ll  the  women
there  performed  skilled  jobs.  The  second  reason
seems  to  be  the  cne  which  explains  the  situation,
for  most  of  the  women  were married  and  even  some
who  were not  currently  married  had  children.  They
absented  themselves  not  only  nil en  they  themselves'
were  i ll  but  aiso  when  their  children  were.

i i i)  This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  these  female

workers'  external  associations  and  interaction  with
their  family  explain  many  of  the  diversions  of
their  time  and  energy  temporarily  from  the  factory.

Some  working  time  was  also  lost  through  lateness.  Although

Lateness  was  less  widespread  in  this  Ghanaian  factory  and  was  a t t r i-
butable  to  mainly  the  irregular  transportation  system  in  the  city  of
Accra,  the  women  were • more  often  Late  than  the  men.  This  was  con-
firmed  by  the  remarks  made by  tho  factory's  supervisors.  According
to  them,  the  female  employees  were  always  late  to  work  and  thus  were
less  productive  than  their  male  colleagues*  On one  such  occasion
during  the  study  period,  ten  seamstresses  in  the  State  Factory  on  the
afternoon  shift  came  to  work  twenty  minutes  l a t e.  The  senior  pro-
duction  room  supervisor  stressed  the  fact  that  no  tailor  or  male
employee  was  among these  latecomers  and  warned  the  seamstresses
that  they  would  be  sent  home  if  they  repeated  this  practice*  The

60

next  day,  this  supervisor  ordered  the  production  room door  to  be
closed  five  minutes  after  the  start  of  the  shift  and  three  seam-
stresses  were  sent  home  ?«id  thus  lost  their  wages  for  that  day.  Like
the  higher  female  absenteeism  rate,  perhaps  this  hi^ier  female  pro-
pensity  to  be  l a te  to  work  cam.  also  be  explained  in  terms  of  the
duties  they  have  to  perform  at  home.  This  would  thus  seem  to  be  cue
of  the  consequences  of  a  woman or  more precisely  of  a mother  or  wife*
combining her  house  duties  with  wage  employment  outside  the home*

TCLth regard  to  turnover,  none  of  the  state  factory's  employees

It  was  however,  obvious  from  responses  to  the  question

left  i ts  employment  either  voluntarily  or  involuntarily  during  this
period. 
"would you  like  to  continue  to  work  in  this  factory  or  go  elsewhere
to  work?"  that  some of  the  employees  wanted  to  leave  but  had  not
actually  done  so  because  of  their  inability  to  obtain  alternative
employment  or  find" the  capital  to  set  up  themselves  in  private
practice. 
leave,  the  seamstresses  were  generally  inclined  to  stay.  This  might
be  explicable  in  terms  of  the  fact  that  the  former  have  higher
aspirations  because  they  are  primary  breadwinners,  and,  therefore,
were  searching  for  avenues- where  they  could  be  adequately  rewarded.
The  seamstresses,  on  the  other  hand,  can be  regarded  to  some  extent
as  secondary  bread  winners*

It  was  found  that  while  most  of  the  tailors  wanted  to

Informal  Relations

With  regard  to  informal  associations  at  the  work place,  it  was
observed  that  both  the  men  and  the  women  employees  engaged  in  them.
There  were  friendship  associations,  nSusutf  groups,  card-playing
groups  and  other  specialised  associations  like  the  cigarette-sharing
and  lottery  groups.  Some  of  these  groups  overlapped  in  the  sense
that  for  example,  workmates  who  are  friends  may  also  belong  to  the
same  "Susu"  group,  or  share  sticks  of  cigarettes. 
It  was,  however,

observed  that  some  of  the  informal  associations  were  sox-linkodj
only  men  for  example  engaged  in  cigaixDt to-sharing  .and  in  working on
the  lottery.  u/ith  regard  to  the  Su.su  /"-croups,  those  tended  to  be
mixed  groups.

These  informal  associations  were  sometimes  carried  outside  the
factory.  This  was,  however,  done  to  a very  limited  degree  owing to
a number  of  factors  -  the  marital  statuses  of  the  workers?  their
residential  non-propinquity  and  the  fact  that  they  ai gaged  in
additional  money-earning  activities  in  their  free  time  after  work.
Marriage  (see  Peil  1972bs6)  has  been  found  to  limit  the  worker's
freedom  of  movement  off  the  job  since  the  time  off  the  job  tends  to
be  spent  with  spouse  and  children  at  home.  The  women,  after  work  or
at  the  week-end  when  they  did  not  go  to  work,  engaged  in  household
chores  like  cooking  for  the  husband  and  children,  washing  and  ironing
of  their  clothes  .and  those  of  their  family  and  in  going  to  the  market.
(see  Table  2)0  This  table  indicates  an  interesting  sex  difference
in  the  off-the-job  activities  engaged  in  by  the  men  and  women  workers..
For  example,  the  household  activities  already  mentioned  were  in  the
main  done by  the  women,  although  generally  for  both  men  -and women
their  single  most  important  activity  en  Sunday  is  going  to  Chapel,
since  most  of  them  belonged  to  one  Christian  religion  or  other,  on
Saturday  they  wash  and  iron  and  after  work  on  the  -working  day,  many
just  rest.  The  women,  however,  rest  in  addition  to  performing  their
household  chores,  while  this  is  not  the  ca.se  with  the  men  workers.

The  women did  not  indulge  in  much visiting  after  work not  only

because  their  household  chores  took  a, lot  of  t h e ir  free  time,  but
also  because  the  workers  did  not  a ll  live  in  the  same neighbourhood
nor  near  each  other  but  were  scattered  throughout  the  city. 
small  to MI  with  one  industry  or  in  an  isolated  community  like  a
mining village,  work mates  are  the  same people  one meets  during
leisure  (Dennis,  Hairiques  and  Slaughter  1956*79-82;  Gouldner  1954«
134-6).  Blawner  (1960s35)?  however,  says  with  reference  to  factory

In  a

62

workers  in  the city  that  occupational  communities  rarely  exist  among
them.  Since  the workers,  in my study,  lived  in  different  parts  of th«
city  and taking  into  consideration  Accra  c i t y 's  irreguXar  transpor-
tation  system  at  t he time  of  the  study  and i ts  relatively  high,
expense  for t he lowly  paid  worker,  it  could  not "be envisaged  that
there  would be much  interaction  between  workmates  off  the  job.

The  Bn-ployees'  off-the-.job  Activities*  by

Day  of  the TJeek  and  Sex

Sunday
f.
m.

Saturday
f.
m. 

TTbrking Day

All  A c t i v i t i es

143

182

126

226

145

Class  of  Activity

A)  Household  Dirties

Wash/iron
Cecil
Cleaning

3)  Recreation

II"  n  in 

-  W - I H I MM

Totals

Cin ema/drinldn g b a r /f 00 tb a ll
T V/mu si c/raA io
Cardgame/taHc
Rest

Totals

r>>  Other  Out side  A c t i v i t i es

CTnarch
Visits
Travel  to  hometown
Attended  funeral
¥ent  to  market/shop

Totals

D)  Sewing/Private  Business

E)  Haircut/Platted  Hair

18
3
3
24

8
3
4
21
36

38
16
7
5
0
66

16

1

26
42
20
88

5
0
3
3
13

45
8
3
4
8
68

10

3

24
4
2
30

10
2
/*
0
13
31

3
15
8
2
3
31

33

1

57
39
36
132

7
1
^
'-f
5
17.

2
10
4
2
33
51

22

4

0
2
5
7

3
9
13
45
70

16
18
2
1
3
40

27

1

15
->
16
65

3
7
8
35
%

•) ^
17
0
2
15
46

1

186

Activities  in  class  as  percentage  of  all  a c t i v i t i es

A)
B)
0)

17
25
46
12
0
100

48
7
37
5
2
-99

24
25
25
26
0
100

58
8
23
9
2
100

5
48
28

18
1
100

35
29
24
11
0
99

Totals

•* Activities  l i ke  "took  my bath"  and  "ate"  were  excluded  from

the  table  because  almost  every  employee  did  than.

Both  the  msi  and  woman,  wore  found  to  operate  "businesses  in

addition  to  their  factory  work.  These  took  the  form  of  sewing  for
t h e ir  private  customers  in  their  spare  time  and  in  a  few  cases  petty
trading.  They  said  they  engaged  in  these  money-earning  a c t i v i t i es  to
supplement  their  poor  factory  pay*  During  the  study,  it  was  realised
that  the  major  grievance  of  most  of  the  factory's  employees  vras  that
their  pay  was  small  which  in  July  1972  averaged  /$36.OO monthly.  Most
of  them  reported  that  "they  could  not  make  ends  meet  on  t h e ir  factory
pay  and  therefore  had  sometimes  to  borrow  from  friends  and  money
lenders  as  well  as  use  their  free  time  to  work  for  money.  This  meant
that  they  had  l i t t le  or  no  leisure  time  within  which  to  v i s it  work-
mates  ?nd  other  friends  off-the-job.

This  short  exposition  has  illustrated  a number  of  aspects  with
regard  to  the  female  employees  in  the  garment  factory  studied.  They
have  been  shorn  to  be  educated,  have  a  relatively  short  work  history
in  wage  employment  and  comparatively  young  compared  to  t h e ir  male
colleagues.  They  have  young  children  but  are  working  full  time,  with
respect  to  t h e ir  work  behaviour,  they  have  higher  absenteeism  aid
lateness  rates  owing  to  t h e ir  home  obligations  which  tend  to
interfere  with  t h e ir  factory  working  time.  At  the  workplace,  they
fGun  friendly  and  other  informal  associations  with  their

64

colleagues  although  these  did  not  tend  to  extend  much  outside  the
confines  of  the  factory  organization.  These  are  a  few  of  the  side
lights  which  were  shed  on  female  employment  from  this  case  study  of
a  Ghanaian  gam en t  factory.  Being  a  case  study  meant  that  one
cannot  generalise  on  the  findings.  To find  vjhether  the  findings  of
this  present  study  are  applicable  to  other  Ghanaian  women  employees,
therefore,  it  would  be  necessary  to  do  a  further  study  in  which sxi
attempt  is  made  to  cover  a  large  number  of  these  employees.

Ibotnotes

1)  In  i960,  the  percentage  of  uneducated  Ghanaians  was

but  in  1970  the  per  cent age  had  decreased  to  56. Q%  made
up. of  49.3^ males  and  66.^ 
Vol.  I I,  p.  xxiv).

(See  1970  Census

females. 

2)  Boserup  (1970s 109)  mentions  that  Ghanaian  women  employees
form  only  3 per  cent  of  the  total  industrial  labour  force.

3)  This  trend  is  illustrated  by  the  work  history  of  a  32  year
old  Ga Seamstresso  After  completing  her  elementary  educa-
tion,  she  entered  trading  but  abandoned  it  because,  in  her
own  words?  "trading  is  not  a  fitting  job  for  an  educated
woman."  She  fpt  apprenticed  to  a  Seamstress  in  Accra  and,
after  one  year,  got  employed  to  a  garment  factory  as  a
Seamstress

4)  Two  sets  of  interviews  were  dones 

the  one  at  the  beginning

of  the  study  sougfrt  to  e l i c it  information  on  the  basic
.social  characteristics  of  the  workers  like  age,  marital
status,  employment  history,  ethiic  background  and number
of  children.  The  second  interview  at  the  end  of  the  study
concerned  i t s e lf  with  the  workers  outside  work  activities.
A lot  of  data  was  also  collected  throu^i  observation.

5)  These  are  contributory  clubs  where  members  contribute
fixed  sums  of  money  at  regular  intervals  and  the  sum
realised  is  given  to  each  member in  rotation.

66

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