University of Washington Tacoma UW Tacoma Digital Commons SIAS Faculty Publications School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences 9-2012 Women Smuggling and the Men Who Help Them: Gender, Corruption and Illicit Networks in Senegal Cynthia Howson University of Washington Tacoma,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/ias_pub Part of the African Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Howson, Cynthia, "Women Smuggling and the Men Who Help Them: Gender, Corruption and Illicit Networks in Senegal" (2012). SIAS Faculty Publications. 19. https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/ias_pub/19 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at UW Tacoma Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in SIAS Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UW Tacoma Digital Commons. J. of Modern African Studies, , (), pp. – © Cambridge University Press doi:./SX Women smuggling and the men who help them: gender, corruption and illicit networks in Senegal* CYNTHIA HOWSON Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Tacoma, WA -, United States of America Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT This paper investigates gendered patterns of corruption and access to illicit networks among female cross-border traders near the Senegambian border. Despite a discourse of generosity and solidarity, access to corrupt networks is mediated by class and gender, furthering social differentiation, especially insofar as it depends on geographic and socio-economic affinity with customs officers, state representatives and well-connected transporters. Issues of organisational culture, occupational identity and interpersonal negotiations of power represent important sources of corruption that require an under- standing of the actual dynamics of public administration.