6.7.1 Increase responsibilities and change in child care roles
Offshore employment involves absence from home for 28 days. For rig workers with previous offshore experience, this is not a new situation to their spouse and children. Some rig workers have worked over 5 years outside Ghana and throughout this period, they only come home occasionally. For these men, working in Ghana actually gives them the opportunity to be closer to their families.
However, for all households the absence one spouse has resulted in a change in the division of household responsibilities. Even though wives of rig workers now have increased capital and expanded business as a result of offshore employment of their husbands, their home keeping
83 role has increased. There is an increased demand of their time for their business as well as taking care of the children while the men are gone offshore.
In Afua’s case, before the husband started work, she woke up at 5:30 am and does her house chores. She gets the children ready and sends them to school. The husband on the other hand, goes to open both shops. She later joined him at the shop after she had sent the children to school. But since the man started offshore work, Afua has to do her house chores, prepare the children for school, before she goes to open the shops. Afua now wakes up at 4:00 am, and also has the responsibility of taking care of both her cosmetics shop and her husband’s electrical shop. There were times when there were customers in both shops at the same time and it could get stressful for her. She planned to employ the service of a house help.
Lily on the other hand, got pregnant while working on the rig. Her husband was a chef on the same rig. Three months after delivery, she started working. Lily leaves her baby in care of a relative and after 28 days when she returned, the baby did not recognize her. The baby also refused her breast feed, and according to Lily, “I felt so bad that I lost touch with my son. He
cried so much the first day I went for him”. At the critical formative stage of this child neither
the mother nor the father is available. They are both engaged offshore.
Case 4: Combining rig work and home management.
Lily (39) and her husband are rig workers. They have two children who stay in care of their aunt while they are on the rig. When Lily is onshore, the children come home but when her husband is onshore the children stay with their aunt. The childcare responsibility is left entirely for Lily though she is also working on the rig, and contributes to the household economy. In addition to the childcare responsibility, she also planned to start her baking business which she used to do prior to her employment offshore.
Some informants also claimed that, since they started rig work, some of their children have become disobedient. According to the men in my sample, their wives are ‘soft’ and so are not able to control the children. Some have reported situations where some children refused to go to school when their fathers are offshore. Some men said the women are unable to exercise control over their children. It was the men they claimed who were able to do that and once they started working on the rigs, there is a power vacuum that women have to fill.
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6.7.2 Offshore work and marriage
The decision to work offshore presents a challenge for couples trying to have children. Rig workers (couples) with previous offshore experience or have worked in sectors that required their long absence and separation from each other do not face this problem unlike the new rig workers.
In cases where both the man and the woman are working offshore, there were periods when husband and wife hardly meet at home. While the man is offshore, the woman is onshore and vice versa. In the words of Lily for instance: “There were times when my husband and I only
meet at the helideck [helicopter landing site] on the rig or at the air port.” They only
communicate on phone. Informants note it would take them some time to adjust to the new situation. Another couple negotiated with their employer who placed them on a shift such that, they had two weeks together onshore. This schedule according to the couple could not be sustained when the man was moved to a different rig to work. It becomes impossible for them to be placed on the schedule which allowed them two weeks together onshore.
On an occasion, I met Lily and her husband at the air port’s departure hall when they were about to go offshore (they were going on different rigs); I asked how they were both coping with their jobs. They looked at each other and laughed. The man said: “It’s not easy ooo. I
don’t know how long we will continue this hide and seek type of life”. Because the working
schedules are not static, couples could either be on or offshore together, or separated such that, when one is offshore, the other is home.
6.8 Conclusion
In conclusion, offshore employment has resulted in an improved economic situation in the household of rig workers. It has opened economic opportunities for the wives of rig workers but lead to a change in child care responsibilities. While there are limited opportunities for Ghanaian rig workers to advance in career, the male dominated jobs presents better opportunities for advancement than female dominated jobs. Employment on the rig has gendered consequences and this varied depending on whether it is the man, woman or both who are working on the rig. In the next chapter I will discuss the findings of the study in light of my research questions and the various theoretical approaches.
85 CHAPTER SEVEN
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
This chapter discusses the empirical findings on offshore employment opportunities, process and outcomes in Ghana’s emerging oil industry in light of the theories used. The aim here is to explain, using the various theories the employment process, and outcomes. I will draw on the labour market, social network, and gender theories to explain the types of jobs that Ghanaians get on the rigs, how they get these jobs and how their employment on the rigs had made impact in the household economy and gender roles.