In the 1970s, Ivory Coast was considered the economic leader of West Africa, but since the 1990s, poverty and conflict have increased, at times affecting women disproportionately.

Education is free in Ivory Coast, but the parents must provide the school supplies, which might be a challenge if they have more than one child (Our Africa).

But this view has been challenged by Ivorian writers, who argue that in many pre-colonial societies, women held political and /or economic power equal to many men.

Bonded and caste communities remained in serfdom like conditions until at least the World War I period, when a series of population movements and communal resistance changed many of these dependence relationships.

Wars during the early colonial period caused an increase in slave taking, in which women were separated from men and moved into new communities.

"Customary" law, outside Muslim areas, was usually rule decided by appointed chiefs and their officials, while only whites and a tiny number of educated African men were subject to French courts.

Whatever decrees issued at the colonial capital in Dakar were implemented at the discretion of local commanders, who usually preferred to leave social concerns to chiefs.

[8] Women were especially affected by three colonial practices that increased in the early 20th century: forced labor, taxation, and military draft.

Ivory Coast was unique, though, in that the north of the colony had white run cotton plantations, for which locals were pressed into service when migrant labor (mostly from modern Burkina Faso) was unavailable.

[10] Women were also placed in positions of independence due to the recruitment of African troops (the Tirailleurs) which was especially heavy in Ivory Coast during the World Wars.

Men who survived these experiences came home less likely to accept the strictures of colonial or customary rule, and while they were away, women were forced to provide for, and sometimes lead, communities.

[11] The political struggle for independence after the Second World War was organized around the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), whose Ivorian section was led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

One dramatic example occurred in 1949, when protests by local women in Grand Bassam and Abidjan caused the administration to back down from the detention of RDA leaders, and help spread support for the party at a time in which it was facing severe repression.

[12] At independence, the government of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny acknowledged existing decrees affecting the status of women and went on to establish the primacy of the nuclear family, raise the minimum age for marriage to eighteen, and condemn in general terms the notion of female inferiority.

[5] Houphouët-Boigny's political style and longevity shaped Ivorian elites into a wealthy, male, educated social stratum.

[5] Legislation was enacted in 1983 to allow a woman to control some of her property after marriage and to appeal to the courts for redress of a husband's actions.

[5] Women were greatly affected by the Ivorian Civil War, begun in September 2002, but coming on the heels of a decade of internal conflict.

The growth of the concept of Ivoirité, a 1990s nationalist movement which sought to exclude large portions of the population from "true" citizenship, was both championed by and caused the suffering of women.

Changes in nationality law meant that women married to Ivorian born men no longer considered citizens lost their citizenship as well.

Women suffering the effects of such violence are often shunned, while customary law offers few remedies, and the formal court system has largely failed to prosecute perpetrators.

Both sides had special women's political organisations, most active of which are "Cadre de concertation permanent des femmes" (Ccpf) led by Dao Coulibaly Henriette, and the "Coordination of Patriotic Women of Côte d'Ivoire" ("Coordination des femmes patriotes de Côte d'Ivoire" - CFPCI).

[18] Women's political organisations continue to be very publicly involved in the sometimes rocky peace process which brought rebel leader Guillaume Soro into power sharing with the government.

[19] Closer to the ground, Ivorian and international organisations have attempted to serve women suffering the effects of war, including one of Africa's first women-run local sexual violence recovery centers in the northern town of Man.

[5] As of the late 1980s, women made up almost one-fourth of the civil service and held positions previously closed to them, in medicine, law, business, and university teaching.