Why Shea is Important to Women

I am attending the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild in Miami this week and I'm struck by the similarities that exist between the women who produce  shea butter in Africa and the women soap makers who will be buying the shea butter to make their soaps, creams and lotions. Both women work with their hands to craft beautiful nourishing products that enhance the lives of others, but that is where the similarities end.

The typical shea producer in Africa is a woman who works on a farm with her  husband and co-wives. She does not own any property and the proceeds from the farming work belong to the husband to be shared at his discretion.

The beginning of the Shea season marks a special time in the life of women who live in the shea belt. It is the time they get to make their own money. Shea Butter is called Women's Gold in many shea communities because the proceeds from the shea trade allow women to make money and they get to decide how it gets spend.  Typically most these monies are invested in the education, clothing and feeding of their children.

During the shea season women are known to be up and out as early 4:00 am in the morning picking nuts and transporting them back to the their compounds to be processed. After picking they ready themselves to go with their husbands to the farm to work a full day. Somewhere in the midst of the all the demands,  she will find time to boil, dry, crush and process the nuts into shea butter.

Shea Butter is used in various amounts in beauty products as an emollient with powerful healing properties. Many women in the West love shea butter because of the great benefit it imparts to the skin. Shea butter is important to African women because it creates  economic opportunities. Research shows that by lifting women out of poverty through enterprise, the lives of the children and community as a whole improve.   Creating awareness of the benefits of natural unrefined shea butter produced by the women in West Africa, has the potential of lifting women out of poverty.

Comments

[Adam]

Great post!