Economic Contribution of Women Essay

1. Introduction This short paper aims to highlight the grave role women pack and can hoyden in frugal ontogeny. It hitresses three questions what is the evidence base to support investing in women? What be the current constraints on realising the full potential of women in the process of economic development? What ar the priority areas of intervention necessary to unblock these constraints? It is focussed on women and on economic development, rather than on the wider set off of gender and development. However, earlier looking at the evidence base, constraints, and interventions, it go away provide a brief context of the evolution of thinking around women and development.11. The Evolution of Women in discipline to in black-tie urge and learning In the1970s, research on African farmers noted that, far from being gender neutral, development was gender blind and could harm women. Out of this realization emerged the Women in Development (WID) approach, which constructed the problem of development as being womens elision from a benign process. Womens subordination was seen as having its roots in their exclusion from the market sphere and their dressed gravel to, and control, over resources.The key was then to place women in development by legislatively trying to limit discrimination and by promoting their involvement in education and employment.The WID approach led to resources being targeted at women and made particularly womens significant productive or income generating contri thoion, more(prenominal) visible. Their generative 1This paper has been prepared with inputs from the membership of the SDSN Thematic Group on the Ch allenges of Social Inclusion sexuality, In contactities and Human Rights, including Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua (University of Ghana, Legon), Jan Egeland (Human Rights Watch), Todd Minerson (White Ribbon Campaign), Richard Morgan (UNICEF), Sanam Naraghi-Anderlin (International Civil parliamentary law Action Network), Elisabet h Prgl (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), Magdalena Seplveda Carmona (UN Special Rapporteur on extreme meagerness and gentleman honests), and Valmaine Toki (UN Permanent Forum on indigenous Issues). contribution was less well emphasised.While WID advocated for greater gender equation, it did not tackle the real structural problem the unequal gender roles and relations that are at the basis of gender subordination and womens exclusion. This approach as well as focussed on what hold back been shapeed practical gender conveys, such as providing come apart access to water, which would reduce the amount of while women and girls must spend in domestic activities and thus allow them more time for education or employment. in that respect was no questioning why collecting water has been constructed as a female responsibility, or why improved access to water is a need of women and girlsonly.In the 1980s, the sexual activity and Development ( gallivant) approach arose out of the critique of WID. GAD recognised that gender roles and relations are key to improving womens lives, with the term gender suggesting that a focus on both women and men is needed. More recently, the need to understand how gender intersects with other characteristics such as age, ethnicity and knowledgeableity has been noted. The GAD approach recognises that it is not sufficient to add women and girls into existing processes of development but there is in addition a need to problematise why they are excluded, advocating that the focus should be on addressing the imbalances of power at the basis of that exclusion.GAD also questions the notion of development and its benign nature, implying a need to shift from a narrow collar of development as economic growth, to a more social or compassionate centred development. GAD projects are more holistic and seek to address womens strategic gender interests by seeking the elimination of institutionalised forms of discr imination for instance around land rights, or ensuring the right of women and girls to live free from force-out, for typeface (Molyneux 1985 Moser 1989).The 1990s witnessed the rise of rights as many NGOs and agencies adopted a rights- base approach to development. Rights increase the recognition that womens demands are 3legitimate claims. The most guiding light success for the womens movement has perhaps been the establishment of sexual and reproductive rights as such. Within this has been recognition of womens right to live free from military group, and a broadening of understanding of violence against women from domestic to gender based. There was also a shift in understanding development as marrow economic development to a more holistic social development focus, in so far economic growth remains the main driver.For the majority of large development organisations and agencies, the WID approach has now largely been replaced by GAD, which has been institutionalised within the notion of gender mainstreaming. Mainstreaminginvolves ensuring that a gendered placement is central to all activities, including planning, implementation and monitoring of all programmes, projects, and legislation. While critiqued if undertaken merely as a tick box exercise, gender mainstreaming offers a potential for placing gender at the heart of development.However, womens rights, particularly sexual and reproductive health rights, are not universally accepted as rights, and violence against women remains prevalent across the globe, and women still lack full and equal participation in economic and political life. Mainstreaming has even so to succeed and there is a need for a continued prioritisation of integrating women into development.2. Evidence on the immensity of Women to Economic Development The most influential evidence on the importance of women to economic development has come from research used to support the population blasphemes Gender Mainstreaming Strategy la unched in 2001 (Dollar and Gatti 1999 Klasen 1999). This research highlighted that societies that discriminate by gender tend to bewilder less rapid economic growth and poorness reduction than societies that treat males and females more 4equally, and that social gender disparities produce economically inefficient outcomes (World bank building 2001a). For example, it is shown that if African countries had closed the gender gap in school day between 1960 and 1992 as quickly as East Asia did, this would have produced close to a doubling of per capita income growth in the region (WBGDG 2003).The primary pathways finished which gender systems affect growth are by influencing the productivity of labour and the allocative efficiency of the parsimoniousness (World Bank 2002). In terms of productivity, for example, if the access of women farmers to productive inputs and human capital were on a par with mens access, total agricultural output could increase by an estimated 6 to 20 percen t (World Bank 2001b). In terms of allocative efficiency, bit increases in crime syndicate income are generally associated with reduced child mortality risks, the marginal impact is almost 20 clock as large if the income is in the hands of the mother rather than the father (WBGDG 2003).Identification of women as being a reliable, productive and cheap labour lunge makes them the preferred workforce for textiles and electronic transnational corporations. Perception of women as good with money, including being better at paying back loans, has led them to be targeted in microfinance programmes. Recognition of women as more efficient distributors of goods and serve wells within the household has led to them being targeted with resources aimed at alleviating poverty, such as cash transfer programmes.The preceding(prenominal) shows how the justification for including women in development in economic growth has been an efficiency argument, with equity concerns being 5somewhat secondary . Critics suggest this instrumentalist approach to engendering development, while manner of speaking economic growth gains, will not fundamentally change the position and situation of women. It is important to note that while gender equality will help bring economic growth, economic growth will not necessarily bring gender equality. Advancing gender equality requires strengthening divergent dimensions of womens autonomy economic and political autonomy, full citizenship and freedom from all forms of violence, and sexual and reproductive autonomy (Alpzar Durn 2010).3. Constraints on Realising the Full Potential of Women in the Process of Economic Development Investment in the human capital, health and education, of women and girls is presented as a key way forward as witnessed by the MDGs. The logical system is that educated, healthy women are more able to engage in productive activities, find formal sector employment, earn higher incomes and enjoy greater returns to schooling than are uneducated women (WBGDG 2003 6). Educated women are more likely to invest in the education of their own children, and they are also more likely to have fewer children.Thus investment in human capital has positive short and longer term/inter-generational outcomes and is good for both productivity gains and limiting unsustainable population growth. However, attendance has narrowly focussed on ensuring the equal access of girls to primary education. Inequality of access to secondary and higher education persists, as does the limited elaboration of girls in the study of science and technology, limitingthe future life and employment options of insipid girls.Willingness to school, feed, and provide healthcare to girls is far more strongly determined by income and the costs of providing these services than is the case for boys. Sens 100 million missing women is testimony to how girls are discriminated against in terms of the allocation of household resources to the point that it cr eates a gender imbalance in some societies and countries.Families are often unwilling to invest in the education of girls if this investment is not perceived as bringing them direct economic gains girls are valued only as wives and mothers, and/or marriage transfers any potential future gains from this investment to another family. As 1 in 7 girls marries before the age of 18 in the developing world (UNFPA 2012), early and forced marriage remains a key issue and an important factor limiting young womens engagement in both education and economic activities.Justice institutions, from the police to the courts, continue to deny womens right to justice. Women and girls remain unable to access justice, given that in many countries there are still laws that discriminate against women in relation to the family, holding, citizenship and employment. Justice systems also do not meet the needs of specific groups of women, such as indigenous women who are discriminated against and face violenc e in the open and private spheres based on both gender and race (UNPFII 2013).Cultural factors limit womens rights and engagement in the workplace. Religion still has a key role to play in determining gender norms in many cultures and fundamentalist views across the spectrum of religions threaten or deny womens rights, including rights related to sex and sexualities, and to mobility and employment. Economic fundamentalism, policies and practices that prerogative profits over hoi polloi, also deny women their rights as workers and to work. While political culture is important for bringing change, women continue to have a limited division at the local and national levels, and womenare not able to fully participate in formal systems of power.In the majority of cultures unequal gender and generational relations exist within households with the male head having a high level of control. A woman going out to work is often take in by others as meaning the man is unable to provide for h is family, making men reluctant and thus limiting womens engagement in stipendiary work through violence or the threat of violence. When women do engage in paid work, it can improve their voice in the home and mightiness to influence household decision-making.It can also lead to conflict in the home, especially if women earn more than men, or womens employment coincides with mens under or unemployment. In the last decades, a crisis in masculinity has been recognised, relating to the changes in mens roles and positions through processes of globalisation, suggesting a need to focus attention on men if these changes are to bring transformative progress towards greater equality, rather than further harm women.Women continue to suffer limited mobility and, in some cultures, women are not able to leave the home if not accompanied by a man, effectively negating any type of paid employment. Even when women are allowed to leave, they whitethorn face verbal, sexual and physical abuse from u nknown males for being in the street and face gossip and stigma within their own communities.The growing levels and extremes of violence against women have been captured in the notion of femicide the killing of women by men just for being women, including honour killings. In Mexico for example, the term femicide has been used to describe female manufacturing plant workers being killed for going against gender norms and engaging in paid work outside the home.One in three women across the globe will experience violence at some stage in her lifetime. Violence against women and girls, or the threat of violence, be it physical, sexual or emotional, both in the private and public spheres, at the hands of known and unknown men, 8remains a key limiting factor to womens mobility and engagement inprocesses of development.Women who work at home have limited opportunities. While women are very in use(p) in agriculture, this is generally subsistence rather than cash crops. It is estimated that women own only 1% of property and lack of rights to acquire or own land, which severely limits womens engagement in larger scale cash crop production. Even when women can inherit land, the need for male shelterion or labour whitethorn mean they will give the land to male relatives.Lack of land ownership may also stop them participating in schemes to improve agricultural output, while lack of wider assets disallows them from accessing loans. Given their lower asset base, women farmers may be most touch by climate change, and while having knowledge of how to adapt, they may be least able to adopt appropriate adaptation strategies.World Bank research has highlighted how the worthless are less likely to engage in higher riskreturn activities and the result is that the return on their assets is 25-50% lower than for wealthier households (Holzmann and Jrgensen 2000). While not a gendered analysis, womens relative poverty, lack of assets, and lack of experience might mean they are pa rticularly risk averse keeping them from higher return economic initiatives. However, women have been shown to use micro-finance effectively to develop small enterprises and are recognised as good at paying back loans.When women are in paid employment, they are more likely to be engaged in part time rather than full time work, in the informal rather than the formal sector, and across the globe women earn less than men for comparable work. 9During the recent financial crisis, measures to protect the poor through employment programmes have not considered the gendered dimensions of crisis, yet women may have been more severely affected than men and in more diverse ways. Economic and financial crises cannot be seen in isolation from food, fuel, water, environment, human rights, and care crises (AWID 2012). Women face particular risks during disaster, which climate change may increase, and during conflict. In particular, the risk of physical and sexual violence increases. Agencies not on ly fail to protect women and girls, but theirreproductive and particularly their productive needs are often overlooked in crisis response and peacebuilding.While remunerated work is important for women, it is important to remember that women still undertake the bulk of unpaid work in the home, household plot, or family business. They have the primary responsibility for caring for children and older people as well responsibility for undertaking activities such as collection of water or firewood. Women play the key role in the care economy, which not only provides care to the young, old and the sick, but also is vital for ensuring a productive workforce. As this work is not remunerated, it is undervalued and lies outside general conceptualisations of the economy.Women engaged in paid work often face a double work day, since they may only be allowed to work as long as their domestic duties are still fulfilled. This means women are time poor and the time buck may impact on their health and wellbeing. To alleviate this burden and free women to enter paid work, daughters may be taken out of school to cover the domestic work, with related negative impacts on their education and business leader to seek remunerated work in the future.Womens continued inability to control their own stinkiness means that childbirth limits their ability to engage in productive activities. Even when reproductive health services are 10provided, this is not enough to ensure womens ability to access them. Men may see the decision over if and when to have children to be their decision, and large numbers of children may be read as a sign of male fertility and power, which becomes more important when masculinity is threatened. In many cultures, discussion of sexualities remains taboo, denying access and rights to those who do not conform to the heterosexual norm.The sexual and reproductive rights of adolescent girls in particular may be overlooked and they may be denied access to reproductive health services if they are unmarried. Research establishes a link between education and womens ability to control their fertility. Studies also show that paid work can promote greater understanding of sexual and reproductive rights among women.Womens socially constructed altruistic behaviour means that economic resources that enter the household via women are more likely to be spent on household and childrens needs. Female-headed households may not be the poorest of the poor as popularly constructed, since women who live with men may suffer secondary poverty the household overall is not poor but, as the man withholds income for personal consumption, women and children within the household are poor (Chant 2006). When women earn, men may withhold even more of their income, leaving women and children with access to the same level of resources but improving the position of women through greater control of those resources.This irresponsibility of men has meant women have been targeted within poverty reduction and social policy initiatives. While the targeting of women with resources is welcome, the associated feminisation of obligation and responsibility (Chant 2008) for delivering policy outcomes may not only marginalise men but add further to womens existing triple burden of reproductive, productive, and community management work. It may privilege their reproductive over their productive role and reinforce women as mothers rather than workers.Care needs to be taken to ensure that programmes serve womens needs and women are not merely placed at the service of these policy agendas (Molyneux 2007). It is important to remember that policies to promote economic development that include women but do not tackle the structural inequalities at the basis of their exclusion may bring growth gains, but will not necessarily bring gender equality gains.4. Priority Areas of Intervention Necessary to Unblock these Constraints Womens groups and movements across the globe contin ue to promote as fundamental the need to respect and defend womens sexual and reproductive health rights. Womens groups and movements also continue to be fundamental to promoting these rights, but many find themselves under threat for thisfocus. Sexual and reproductive rights are critical for social and economic development. Without these rights, women and adolescent girls cannot make decisions around fertility, repeated childbirth keeps them from income generating activities and reduces productivity, and early and forced marriage keeps young women from education and employment.Sexual, emotional and physical violence and the threat of violence limits womens mobility, confines women to the home, and keeps them from engaging fully in processes of social and economic development. Men and boys can have a role to play in the prevention of genderbased violence and the promotion of gender equality.Threats to womens rights exist on many levels, including those posed by culture, religion, an d tradition, as well as processes of globalisation and economic change. A right gained is not a right maintained unless there is constant monitoring of rights. There is a need to strengthen womens access to both formal and informal justice systems, and ensure these are responsive to advancing all womens equal rights, opportunity, and participation. Improving womens political voice is also important here.Womens responsibility for unpaid domestic work makes them time poor as well as more economically dependent on men, yet is vital for ensuring a healthy and productive workforce. While investment in infrastructure such as water, sanitation and electricity is important to ease the time burden associated with these tasks, it does not change how unpaid work and the care economy is conceptualised and valued. Financial, environmental, and health crises intensify the need for care services with the care burden dropping disproportionately on women and girls.Policies to provide affordable, qu ality child care and adequate healthcare services would not only free women to enter paid employment, but also help change care work from being understood as a domestic responsibility to a collective responsibility. This change in how care work is conceptualised and valued should be a longer-term goal.In the short term, there is a need to create full, decent productive employment opportunities for women and access to finance, as well as continue to provide social protection, and more importantly promote and value women as good with money. Key for economic growth is the promotion of womens economic rights which entails promoting a range of womens rights their sexual and reproductive rights and rights to education, to mobility, to voice, to ownership, and to live free from violence.References Alpzar Durn, L. Keynote speech at high-altitude Roundtable The implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly and its contribution to shaping a gender perspective towards the full realization of the MDGs. 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations Headquarters NY, March 2010. AWID. Getting at the Roots Re-integrating human rights and gender equality in the post2015 development agenda. Association for Womens Rights in Development, October 2012. Chant, S.Re-thinking the feminization of poverty in relation to aggregate gender indices, Journal of Human Development (7 (2), p.201-220), 2006. Chant, S. 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