Women's empowerment and the elimination of world poverty
The international development targets
Sex and gender
Women's empowerment, equality and equity
1.1 The aim of UK international development policy is to contribute to the elimination of world poverty. A key component of our strategy is to promote equality for women, particularly for those who make up the majority of the billion or more people living in abject poverty.
1.2 There is a growing and compelling body of evidence that shows that not only do women bear the brunt of poverty, but also that women's empowerment is a central precondition for its elimination. Women's equality is an absolute necessity if the blight of poverty is to be removed and the nations of the world are to create a secure, sustainable and prosperous future.
1.3 This paper sets out what we believe will be required to achieve this goal. It provides an overview of how gender inequalities bear on international development, and the lessons which have been learned from experience. Finally, it sets out the contribution DFID itself can make towards the achievement of gender equality, and the strategy we will follow.
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... Women's equality is more than a right. It is an absolute
necessity if the blight of poverty is to be removed ... |
1.5 The focus of this paper is on the powerful links between women's empowerment and the elimination of world poverty. The struggle for gender equality is a key instrument for lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Beyond this, it is also a central element of the wider struggle for human rights for all3.
3 For a detailed explanation of DFID's strategy for incorporating a human rights perspective into development and poverty elimination see the paper on Realising Human Rights for Poor People, which forms part of this series of Strategies for the Achievement of the International Development Targets.
1.6 The nations of the world, including the UK, are committed to a set of development goals and time-bound targets. These were agreed at a series of major UN conferences during the 1990s. They cover key aspects of economic, human, and social development, and the sustainable management of natural resources (see Box 1). Together, they set out the conditions for real progress towards the elimination of world poverty.
1.7 Equal access for girls and boys to primary and secondary education by the year 2005 has been identified as a key measure of progress towards gender equality4. Getting more girls through school is essential5, but vital as it is, education alone will not be enough. Inequalities between women and men are deeply rooted, and need to be tackled across the board in economic, political, social and cultural life. In many cases progress in education will be dependent on success in tackling wider and deeper causes of inequality.
4 This target has been agreed by the international community at three major conferences in recent years - the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995), and the 4th World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).1.8 None of the International Development Targets is likely to be achieved without a genuine global commitment to gender equality. Gender discrimination is not only unjust, it is also inefficient and limits the prospects for development. Effort is required across the whole spectrum of development work, combined with close monitoring of progress, to ensure that the benefits are fairly shared.5 The specific steps DFID will take to help achieve this target are set out in Strategies for Achieving the International Development Targets: Education for All - The Challenge of Universal Primary Education. Department for International Development, London, 2000.
1.9 Women today have won more independence and freedom of action than ever before, but there is still a long way to go. Where women have successfully challenged inequality, the benefits to development have been enormous. In spite of this, millions of women around the world still have to work harder than men to secure their livelihoods, have less control over income and assets, have a smaller share of opportunities for human development, are subject to violence and intimidation, have a subordinate social position, and are poorly represented in policy and decision making.
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... Women today have won more independence and freedom of
action than ever before, but there is still a long way to go ... |
1.10 Differences between women and men are both biologically and socially determined. Biological, or sex, roles mark the fundamental differences between women and men. Social, or gender, roles are highly variable and set by convention and other social, economic, political and cultural forces. The precise boundary between these determining factors is the subject of fierce debate. Nonetheless, the significant variation in the position of women in different societies around the world demonstrates that gender roles are not fixed. They can be changed and renegotiated.
1.11 Empowerment means individuals acquiring the power to think and act freely, exercise choice, and to fulfil their potential as full and equal members of society. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) includes the following factors in its definition of women's empowerment:
Box 1. Targets for international development6acquiring knowledge and understanding of gender relations and the ways in which these relations may be changed;
6 See Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Co-operation. Development Assistance Committee, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, May 1996.
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Economic well-being The proportion of people living in extreme poverty (less than US$1 per day at 1993 purchasing power parity) in developing countries should be reduced by at least one-half by 2015. Social and human development Universal primary education There should be universal primary education in all countries by 2015. Gender equality Progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women should be demonstrated by eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005. Infant and child mortality The death rates for infants and children under the age of five years should be reduced in each developing country by two-thirds the 1990 level by 2015. Maternal mortality The rate of maternal mortality should be reduced by three-fourths between 1990 and 2015. Reproductive health Access should be available through the primary health care system to reproductive health services for all individuals of appropriate ages no later than year 2015. Environmental sustainability and regeneration There should be a current national strategy for sustainable
development, in the process of implementation, in every country by 2005, so as
to ensure that current trends in the loss of environmental resources are
effectively reversed at both global and national levels by 2015. |
"Extending the idea of human development to encompass women's empowerment and gender justice puts social transformation at the centre of the agenda for human development and progress of women. Choices for women, especially poor women, cannot be enlarged without a change in relations between women and men as well as in the ideologies and institutions that preserve and reproduce gender inequality. This does not mean reversing positions, so that men become subordinate and women dominant. Rather, it means negotiating new kinds of relationships that are based not on power over others but on a mutual development of creative human energy...It also means negotiating new kinds of institutions, incorporating new norms and rules that support egalitarian and just relations between women and men."71.13 Defining women's empowerment in this way has important consequences for understanding the meaning of women's equality. DFID's approach to women's empowerment draws an important distinction between equality of opportunity, on the one hand, and equity of outcomes, on the other.7 Progress of the World's Women 2000. UNIFEM Biennial Report. United Nations Development Fund for Women, New York, 2000, pp. 20-21.
1.14 This distinction is important because it underlines the rights of women to define the objectives of development for themselves, and to seek outcomes which are not necessarily identical to those sought or enjoyed by men, but which reflect differences in needs and aspirations. Equality does not mean that everyone has to be the same. Diversity enriches human life and should be a cause for celebration, not a basis for discrimination.
