SBR-9506062 This dissertation-improvement award provides funds for field equipment, travel, and language training for the Student's research into Ghanaian women's development and use of social networks (particularly for financing entrepreneurial ventures) since the early 1980s. Fieldwork (November 1995 through October 1996) will involve primary ethnographic data collection in two villages in Ghana's Central Region, via a survey of 100 women of varying family and socio-economic backgrounds, involved in two different entrepreneurial activities, as well as participant observation in women's associations and life-history development for ten women. The ethnographic research will be complemented by archival data gathering and interviews with development-project administrators. The project's potential theoretical and practical contributions lie in its focus on the role of women outside the household and the role of women in development activities that rely on social networks.
