The Lives of Women in Chad: Challenges and Opportunities

Nov 06, 2025 0

Chad faces significant challenges in improving the lives of women who have been living in harsh conditions since childhood. Women in Chad are subjected to violence and marginalization; many of them get married at a young age and are forced to take responsibility for family and household chores.

Understanding Chad

Chad is an African country bordered to the north by Libya, to the South by the Central African Republic, to the East by Sudan, and to the West by Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. Chad has a population of about 19 million, of which 1.6 million live in the capital and largest city of N'Djamena, and its capital is N’djamena. Chad has many natural resources, including gold, oil, uranium, bauxite and tungite. The main economy of Chad is based on the oil sector and agriculture.

History of Women's Life in Chad

Women in Chad have been suffering from marginalization and violence since ancient times, as they did not have full rights in society. It was difficult for women to get an education, and daughters were marrying at an early age. The government in Chad has begun to develop laws to protect women’s rights in recent years, but a lot of work still needs to be done. It is worth noting that the current government of Chad seeks to improve the lives of women in the country and promote their rights.

Social Conditions of Women in Chad

Women have always played an important role in Chadian society, but they face many social challenges in Chadian culture and traditions. The role of a woman in the family is limited to household chores, and it is also difficult for her to get job opportunities outside the home. Also, women are deficient in vitamins and minerals, which negatively affects their health.

Challenges Facing Chadian Women

Life in Chad is difficult and needs a lot of patience and steadfastness from the population, especially women, as they have been living in harsh conditions since childhood. Chadian women experience great difficulties in getting involved in the labor market which is a serious problem in Chadian society.

Read also: Resilience of Women in CAR

As for education, Chad has significant problems in this sector. More than 3% of individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 have not been able to obtain secondary education. Women in Chad suffer from a higher level of illiteracy, with 72% of women without access to education. Students in primary and secondary schools face very difficult conditions due to the lack of basic sanitation facilities, which makes them vulnerable to disease.

Work and Education

Women in Chad face many obstacles in entering the labor market, on average, the percentage of women employed in non-agricultural operations is only 10.9% compared to 17.4% for men. In addition, women often work in low-paid jobs, characterized by unsanitary working conditions. The percentage of women who own land or take legal responsibility is only 2% of the Chadian society, which hinders their role in the national economy.

Education is a major problem in Chad, on average less than 3% of the community between the ages of 15-24 have access to secondary education. Women suffer from a higher rate of illiteracy, with 72% of women without access to education and much higher in remote areas. Many point out that the dangerous conditions for primary and secondary school students are characterized by the lack of basic sanitary facilities, which makes them vulnerable to many diseases and injuries. Traditional beliefs force girls to abandon schooling as soon as they reach age of puberty (from 10 to 12 years old).

Motherhood in Chad: Figures and Statistics

Chad is among the worst countries in the world in terms of the maternity index, due to the risks surrounding pregnancy, childbirth and the shortening of the duration of reproductive life in women. Only 15% of women receive comprehensive care during the follicular period of pregnancy, and 14% of women under the age of twenty-five are married. More than 28 thousand children a year are born in Chad before the age of seventeen, while a small number of women still receive basic women’s health services, which significantly increases the risk of their death or severe illness.

Child Marriage

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys. In Chad, child marriage is exacerbated by:

Level of education: 57% of women with no education or only pre-primary education were married before the age of 18, compared to only 21% who had completed higher education.
Poverty: Poor families marry off their daughters early to reduce their perceived economic burden and to obtain the dowry. In Chad, 54% of girls married before the age of 18 are from the poorest household in comparison to 50% from the richest households.
Religion: Child marriage occurs among Catholic, Protestant (52%), Animist (60%) and Muslim (57%) households and is often associated with the misguided notion of protecting a girl’s honour and shielding her from sexual attention.
Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C): 38% of women aged 15-49 have experienced FGM/C in Chad. The practice is used as a way of controlling female sexuality and is sometimes regarded as a sign of readiness for marriage.
Polygamy: Some girls are married off as third or fourth wives to men, as they are often seen as easier to control. This is particularly common among the Fula community.

61% of girls marry or enter a union before age 18 and 24% marry before age 15.8% of boys in Chad marry before age 18. The highest rates of child marriage among women in Chad are found in Chari Baguirmi (70%), Mayo Kebbi Est (66%), Guera (63%), Kanem (60%), Salamat (61%). The highest rates of child marriage among men in Chad are found in Logone Oriental (23%), Logone Occidental (17%), Mandoul (14%), Mayo Kebbi Ouest (12%). The highest rates of child marriage are found in the Peul/Foulbe ethnic group (67%), Massa/Mousseye (64%), Baguirmi/Barma (63%) and Kanembou/Bomou (60%).

Humanitarian Situations

Humanitarian situations like in Chad exacerbate poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis contexts, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope with greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence. Chad faces complex and interlinked humanitarian crises: food insecurity, forced displacement, severe droughts, and epidemics.

Chad is host to the largest refugee population in West and Central Africa. As of 2024, there were 6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 1.5 million refugees from Central African Republic, Sudan, and Nigeria, all of which has strained local resources. Girls are at heightened risk of sexual violence within the displaced communities. Cultural norms often force girls to marry their attackers to preserve their honour. Due to ongoing conflict in Sudan, between April 2023 and January 2024, there were approximately 497,000 Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad.

Efforts to Support Chadian Women

Chad has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. In the 2023 Universal Periodic Review, Chad reiterated their efforts in promoting gender equality and education for girls within the Ministry of Education. This was done by the launch of the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) initiative.

The main aim of this programme was to support the continuation and re-enrolment into education for girls and promoting and access to reproductive health care for girls. The government acknowledged that since the launch of this programme, 27,906 girls attended awareness-raising events on gender equality, adolescent pregnancy and child marriage; 360 safe spaces have been set up; 360 mentors have been recruited and trained on how to convey life-skills, reproductive, gender and human rights training. The government is taking more active measures to guarantee access to justice for victims of FGM/C, sexual and gender-based violence and child marriage. This is being done by establishing stricter penalties under the Criminal Code.

Read also: The role of women in Chad

During its Voluntary National Review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum, the government of Chad reported the adoption of National Strategy to Combat Violence Based on Gender and that the minimum age for marriage has been increased to 18 years. The government aims to establish policies and programmes to combat violations against women and children such as the Road Map to Combat Child Marriage 2019 - 2021.

The Life Association for Africa works to change reality by providing education, training and health care. The association contributes to the empowerment of women, providing them with the necessary skills for financial independence and supporting them in launching small enterprises and developing agricultural projects. The association also works to increase community awareness and strengthen women’s leadership in the social and political fields. The efforts of the association positively affect the lives of women and empower them to contribute to the development of Chad today.

Chadian women and education in Chad need significant support in order for them to achieve their goals and raise their socio-economic status in Chadian society.

AHAD works to empower women and support their rights through many programs and projects.

Recommendations to Support Chadian Women and Improve Their Lives

To improve the lives of Chadian women, it is necessary to provide different job opportunities for both women and men, provide a healthy and fair work environment, as well as strengthen efforts to improve the quality of education in Chad and provide basic health facilities in schools.

Chadian women in the labor and education sectors are experiencing great difficulties and challenges, and these difficulties are a major obstacle to improving the socio-economic status of women in Chadian society.

Let’s work together for a better future for women, equality and justice in Chad.