Retours d’enquêtes en terrain sensible à Lomé (Togo)

Abstract

This article corresponds to the cross-reflexive work of a Togolese sociologist and a French anthropologist who questioned the daily organization of two profiles of female workers in Lomé, Togo: business owners in the formal economy and female medical staff members. While the subject of domestic and care work is easy to discuss with women because they have taken on a perceived feminine duty to “reconcile work and family”, gaining access to their husbands to discuss it proves to be extremely complicated. The article confronts the theoretical ambition of gathering the voices of the husbands of the main respondents to include in the reality in the field. Through this methodological challenge, it seeks to understand the dilemmas married women with time-consuming jobs live through. The reflection carried out facilitates the identification of strategies for field investigation with husbands and men on the subject of family organization.

Keywords

• methodology
• work
• women
• reflexivity
• domestic organization
• Togo