Women working as individuals face a number of constraints; it would seem that working in groups could help them overcome these. The study probed the feasibility of women's groups, or clubs, in the context of fish farming.
While women expressed interest in the idea, all respondents made the point that when working in groups one deals with a disparate set of individuals. Some may be tricky, they may not want to work as hard as others. There may be too many aspiring leaders, too few team players. Some women may be stubborn, and dislike advice from others. Some people may be seen as deriving more benefits than others. Such characteristics or apprehensions do not stimulate the co-operation that's essential for group work. Further, the women in Musonda Bule said group work was not possible because of household duties.
The question of joint ownership of ponds was therefore given up as impractical, and women suggested that individual pond owners should form groups for co-operation. The groups were not meant to be co-operatives; they were defined as support groups to mobilize essential requirements -- labour, equipment and fingerlings. With the exception of one woman, who said group work posed too many problems, the others were in favour of group work.
It was believed that ideally a group should comprise five women. Reasons:
It's easy for a group of five women to meet and decide on the support system, particularly if they are neighbours.
Co-operation is easy in a group of five. The larger the group, the harder it is to control.
Women in a group of five can easily construct five ponds, one for each member. In larger groups, by the time women get to the seventh or eighth pond they are exhausted and other commitments claim their attention. What then happens is that after five ponds, the women start dropping out. Quarrels break out among the remaining group members about the ponds already constructed.
Five ponds could get constructed fairly quickly, ensuring that the women continue to co-operate for other needs.
It was emphasized that all the ponds should get finished at the same time, so that no one starts fish farming before the other members have ponds.
The women made these suggestions on the basis of their experiences with women's clubs in Chibote. One respondent recalled that a homecraft club in Chibote had to be disbanded because of the un-cooperative spirit of some members and the lack of organization, particularly the absence of proper leadership. Everyone agreed that working in groups was not easy. But it was essential in order to overcome negative social attitudes and to get over the problems of labour, equipment and fingerlings.
Though no woman in the neighbourhood had a pond, the repondents could not pinpoint anyone interested in group work or a club. Some members pointed out that they had not discussed the subject so far, so it was difficult to gauge what was in people's minds.
