Households, gender and rural-urban migration: reflections on linkages and considerations for policy

This paper highlights the interrelatedness of gender and household organization in a central aspect of developmental change: rural-urban migration. It demonstrates the significance of intra-household dynamics for understanding the gender selectivity of population movement and shows in turn how this contributes to household diversity among low-income groups in both rural and urban areas. It also shows that although most women have little choice in determining decisions over their own or others' migration (or household arrangements), the “feminization” of household headship which so often results from demographic mobility is not necessarily negative for women. The paper concludes that governments and agencies could do more for gender equality by acknowledging the potentially transformative role of interventions aimed not only at, but inside, households, and by adopting more flexible positions towards household diversity.