Photo of the week : men’s jobs taken over by women in Bujumbura

The high living cost and resilience oblige : yesterday Bujumbura welcomed taxiwomen, masons’ helpers and construction engineers (public works), today it is butchers who are arriving, and the competition promises to be tough.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Some women, like this pork seller I met at her workplace, take over niches that will inevitably bring them several customers!

Like these customers who, between two taxi drivers, deliberately choose to be driven by a woman, there is a chance that the regulars of the bistros, mainly men, will empty their wallets at these taboo breakers.

Dorine is a butcher who has recently started working. She had a lot of problems in the beginning and those around her made fun of her, but she held on. Today she has many customers, and she supports her family.

Céline, another butcher wife from Musaga in the south of the commercial capital, mentions her husband’s no vote following mockery from those around him, but that today, given the profits made from her work, he strongly encourages her.

Another young woman at a construction site says she started as a mason’s assistant. Passionate and determined to pursue her dreams, she became a mason and indicates that she is very proud.

Her husband, a mason, works with her when he gets a contract and so she is never unemployed.

“I get along well with other masons and when I have difficulties, I don’t hesitate to ask for help. For example, playing balance while moving to the top of the walls or from some perches on the floor tens of meters from the ground,” she explains.

All these women indicate that for them, there is no profession reserved for men.

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Our photo: a butcher at her workplace in the commercial city Bujumbura, May 2024.