Women and salt, are ubiquitous yet essential to life. Over the years the term salt has attached itself to be associated with women rights, equality, suffrage, and resistance. Novels such as “Sucking Salt” by Meredith Gadsby and “Of Women and Salt” by Gabriela Garcia have used the symbolism of salt to discuss the hardship of women and their endurance to persist. Although there is still more research needed to understand the full spectrum of salt’s symbolism in connection with women, it is clear that salt plays a significant role in the lives of women, historically and today. And since today is International Women’s Day, I figured it is appropriate for us to explore the relationship between women and salt!
Salt’s significance in women’s lives goes beyond the symbolism of salt and into the production of salt. Records indicate that the first evidence of salt production dates as far back as 6000 BCE in China and 5000 BCE in Africa (Kurlansky, 2002). Although over the course of history evidence of men, women, and children all had a hand in producing salt, in many parts of the globe women were, and still are, the primary producers. India, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Caribbean are just a few locations where salt production was and still is primarily performed by women.
Women who produce salt do it for many reasons. Some women choose to produce salt while others were forced. Mary Prince an enslaved woman born in Bermuda in 1788 and was forced to work the salt pans as she got older (Sperry, 2022). It was common for women to work the salt pans in the Caribbean while men worked the sugarcane fields (Sperry, 2020). Prince’s autobiography gave glimpse into the harsh reality of the life of an enslaved salt worker. Working from dawn to dusk, Prince would be knee deep in salted water with the blazing sun beating down her back. Standing in the salt water, bare skin, led to dreadful boils that withered away at her flesh down to the very bone (Sperry, 2020).
Although Prince’s narrative is extremely horrific, her experience gave her the strength to persist and put her story to pen, writing her autobiography that was later used in the fight to abolish slavery in the British colonies (Sperry, 2022). Similar accounts of salt and women being used to fight slavery is also seen with Queen Nanny, the leader of the Maroons in Jamaica who withheld the consumption of salt to stay connected to her African roots. The lack of salt allowed her to tap into her African roots giving her the strength to lead the revolution and fight against the British for their freedom (Sperry, 2020).
The production of salt is not glamours and is labor intensive. Women who produce salt typically do it because it is the only source of income they can acquire. However, it is not the only reason why they produce salt as there can be a religious or cultural reasoning behind women producing salt. Needless to say, many women choose to produce salt as a from of freedom and ability to produce their own income to support themselves and their family.
Today women in Kenya, Indonesia, and Yemen are all producing salt as forms of gender equality. In Kenya, women are coming together to collectively produce desert salt in the Chalbi desert as a from of income to support their families and invest in a better future. These women pool together their earnings to support their business, pay for medical expenses, food, and use a certain percent of their profits to support girls’ education. Their investment in girls’ education helps to combat gender inequality and early marriage by allowing girls equal access to education helping them to gain access to opportunities that build a pathway out of poverty (Concern Worldwide, 2021).
Just like Kenya, women in Indonesia are seizing this moment to use salt as a form of gender equality. The non-governmental organization Panca Karsa is helping to empower over 400 women to work for themselves as salt producers to help create stable income. Panca Karsa provides training programs geared to teaching women business skills including financial management, business planning, and marketing. Additionally, these programs provide a space to improve gender relations between men and women within the house hold, helping to promote gender equality (Ahmad, 2018).
Salt production among women is so much more than making an income, but is also reclaiming one’s independence and strength whether it be seen in history or present time. A theme throughout this post is women using salt to persist and create a better life for themselves. As I walked down this salt road, I have talked to several women who all have similar stories on how salt has allowed them to gain back their sense of self. My own story has used salt to reclaim my strength and help me to persist during a time of hardship. Feeling lost, experience grief, and recovering from an abusive situation, all with a sense of failure knocking on my door, salt and the creation of Salty Jack Salt Co. gave me the space to reclaim my power back as a woman. Salt inspired me, encouraged me, and gave me the opportunity to persist with freedom and stability. Each woman who is involved in the salt industry is a woman of power, a woman of strength, a woman of freedom, a woman of resistance, a woman of equality. Salt is more than something we use to flavor our food, it is symbol of equality, a symbol of women. Women ARE the salt of life.
Citation:
Ahmad, N. (2018). Women Sea Salt Producers in Indonesia Cooperate to Seize New Economic Opportunities. U.S. Department of State. https://2017-2021.state.gov/women-sea-salt- producers-in-indonesia-cooperate-to-seize-new-economic-opportunities/index.html
Concern Worldwide (2021). Salt of the Earth: The Women Accelerating Gender Equality in Kenya with Desert Salt. Concern Worldwide US. https://www.concernusa.org/story/gender-equality- kenya-chalbi-desert-salt/
Kurlansky, M. (2002). Salt: A World History. New York: Penguin Books.
Sperry, A. J. (2020). " Just a Dash of Salt": Salt and Identity Formation in Historical and Contemporary Jamaica (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon).
Sperry, A.J. (2022). Women Who Changed the World: Their Lives, Challenges and Accomplishments through History. Ed. Candice Goucher. ABC-CLIO.