What motivates single women to migrate from northern Ghana to Accra?

In recent decades there has been a large migration stream of single women from the north to Accra in Ghana. Existing studies have focused on young migrant women’s livelihood strategies in their place of destination. However, once-married women – divorced and widowed women and neglected wives – also migrate, and their motivations for migration are less known. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods, the authors investigate the effects of gender norms, age, marital status, socio-economic status, and position in households on women’s decisions to migrate. The results revealed that migrant women from resource-poor households, regardless of age, marital status and position in households, commonly cited a gain in autonomy as an important motivation for their migration. From a differentiated perspective, young unmarried women aspired to prepare themselves for often expensive religious marriage ceremonies, whereas once-married women invest in their children’s education and build their own housing. By paying attention to the effects of gender norms, age, marital status, socio-economic status, and position in households on women’s decisions to migrate, the study illuminates the contradictory ways in which their migration practices are both shaped by and shape gender ideologies in parts of contemporary northern Ghana