Good women: A feminist political ecology on how women in rural Uganda assert their agency through Pentecostal notions of morality

Abstract

"Final statement By outlining the scientific debate of FPE and applying Pentecostal studies to this theoretical framework, the thesis has begun to establish the lens through which the empirical data would be interpreted. The description of Sarah s and Julia s gendered domestic tasks has illustrated the naturalization and moralization of the gendered division of labor informed by Pentecostal ideas of female domesticity (Parsitau 2012; Mate 2002). Thus, I emphasized Pentecostalism's role in justifying the patriarchal order and dictating women s roles. Due to this gendered division of labor, men find jobs other districts (public sphere) and cities while women stay in the village (private sphere), depending on their natural environments - for both domestic and and agricultural use - and their Pentecostal faith.

Pentecostalism provides a system of conduct throughout daily life, shaping people s behaviors through notions of morality and propriety (Jones 2012). These notions are profoundly gendered (Mate 2002). Thus, Pentecostalism, according to Parsitau (2012), is both empowering and disempowering for its female members. Disempowering is the endorsement of the patriarchal family s holiness, tightening the patriarchal grip on women (Parsitau 2012). Pentecostalism upholds the patriarchal order by dictating male and female roles in marriage and society under the guise of Gods natural order (Parsitau 2012). Women s domesticity and their role of helper, mother, and wife is deemed a sign of faith. Hence, Pentecostalism naturalizes gendered roles and responsibilities as is emphasized in FPE by Buechler and Hanson (2015). Due to the gendered division of labor, informed by Pentecostal righteousness, women are working with, responsible for and dependent on their natural environments; water, crops, animals and plots. They are the ones who are obliged to carry the mentally and physically heavy burden of fetching water, digging on the plots and planting new crops, among many other time-consuming and energy-guzzling tasks.

Empowering is the ideology of personal transformation and the promise of modernity and wealth accumulation (Freeman 2012; Mate 2002; Meyer 2004), which is achieved through working hard. Hard work is a meaningful virtue upon which the Pentecostal women of Kabore are valued. Bearing all the responsibilities in the household and on the plots is a heavy burden, but also a chance for these women to display their embodied righteousness. Hard work makes a good woman in the eyes of the Lord. Hard work resembles a woman s devotion and her morality. A good woman is a proud African, Ugandan woman, strong in the mind and physique, striving for personal transformation and development, resulting in prosperity (Freeman 2012). Women s hard working morality is intertwined with their natural surroundings, as their hard work is often related to natural resources such as fetching water and tending the gardens. The women of Kabore use their natural environments as a playground on which they show their hard working moral bodies (Fantini 2016; Freeman 2012). Hence, their hard working morale enables these women to develop themselves and their families, as Julia mentioned. Subsequently, this notion (re)shapes women s agency and transforms them into agents of change and development (Rocheleau, Thomas-Slayter and Wangari 1996). Furthermore, Kabore s women pro-actively engage with the accumulation of wealth. The most striking example of enhancing female empowerment and agency may be found in the savings and loaning associations constituted by women from the parish to make some money and to support each other. These women refuse to rely on their husbands income and instead actively engage in hard work in order to provide money for shares in the savings and loaning associations. Through these socioeconomic networks, Kabore s women have found a way to assert their agency and empower themselves. Thus, they are increasingly establishing their own moral and financial status and agency. The Pentecostal Ethic of prosperity accumulated through a hard working morality in the household and on the agricultural plots is socially and economically empowering for these women (Freeman 2012)."