Women Playing Part In Development Of Malawi

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 8

Women Playing Part In Development Of Malawi

I'N.Z.P.A.-Reuterl BLANTYRE, Feb. 1. Women are playing an increasingly important part in the development of Malawi. The changes which have taken place in their status since the country became independent in 1964 have been aptly summarised by Mrs Margaret Mlanga, a leading politician and national chairman of the League of Malawi Women. ’•Before independence, the men used to sit at home drinking while the women went out to work,” she said. “Now the men and women go out and work together.” ~ Apart from individual successes, the changed position of Malawi’s women is bqst reflected by the opportunities open to them in education and public service. Nearly one-third of the secondary school teachers are women, as are about one-quarter of the primary school staff. In the secondary schools, about one-quarter of the pupils are girls, and in the teacher-training colleges, the proportion is as high as onethird. At university, more than one-seventh of the students are girls taking degree

courses and diplomas in education and in business studies. And the proportion is increasing. Among the Young Pioneers, an Israeli-trained “back-to-the land” youth movement, 180 girls have completed the 10month course, alongside 3000 boys. The training schedule is substantially the same for both boys and girls, but the girls attend classes in homecraft, nutrition, home economics and child care. However, in the field of nursing, neglected before independence, there are only about 40 trained Malawian sisters, according to the Malawi nursing council. In addition, there are about 100 maternity assistants, 170 midwive. and 150 medical assistants. Fifteen maternity assistants and 41 medical assistants are undergoing training. These numbers are small for a country of four million people, but they are growing fast, and there are opportunities for young Malawian girls to train both at home and abroad. But equality of the sexes in Malawi is a long way off. It is still possible for a Moslem husband to divorce his wife by repeating the word “talaq” (divorce) three times. And while African women married in a Christian church cere-

mony have the same conjugal rights as Christians elsewhere, marriages conducted by tribal chiefs—as many still are—afford less security to the wife than to the husband.