From my Western viewpoint, my project question (do familial obligations surrounding cocoa farming prevent female children from attending school/gaining a higher education) naturally leads to an inferred problem if the answer ends up being yes. This problem for Westerners would be, "these girls aren't getting an education! They need to be in schools!" However, from some of the sources I have looked over, including the one I annotated today, cocoa farming seems to be very beneficial for Ghanaians attempting to get out of poverty, and to create a more stable economy. The potential benefits even apply to women, if not especially, if they can begin to overcome the culturally ingrained gender inequality that is preventing them from equal land ownership and access to product input. So, my question is...am I asking the right question? My most far-reaching hope would be that my research could back some sort of positive social change, and hopefully the change that would most benefit Ghanaians living in rural agricultural areas. I am conflicted about whether youth in Ghana will be benefited more by migrating out of rural areas to urban cities to gain higher education and get city jobs, or if they should continue fostering cocoa agriculture, as the crop has definitely improved Ghana's economic stability. This is something I need to look further into within the literature, and depending on what I find, I may possibly have to reconfigure my question.
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