Gender inequality, poverty, and human development
Key areas of inequality
2.1 At the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, the UN said that "poverty has a women's face", and that 70% of the world's poor were female8. This simple statement hides a complex reality. The 'bottom line' measure of poverty is lack of income, but it also consists of lack of access to services and opportunities for human development, lack of a voice in political life and decision making, and social subordination and exclusion. All poor people experience these deficits, but in almost all cases women and girls suffer from them to a greater degree than men.
8 Human Development Report, 1995. United Nations Development Programme, New York. The UN figure is controversial and is acknowledged as a very rough estimate. Widespread gender inequalities within households indicate, however, that women are likely to be disproportionately represented among the poor.2.2 In the same year as the Beijing conference, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched two new measures to track progress in tackling inequalities between women and men. These were the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). These measures have been used every year since then in UNDP's annual Human Development Report, alongside a broad-based Human Development Index (HDI), to assess the progress of nations towards the elimination of poverty9.
9 The HDI is based on measures of life expectancy, literacy and school enrolment, and real income. The GDI takes the same basic indicators used for the HDI, but adjusts the overall measure according to the gaps in achievement between women and men. Thus, a country with a high HDI score may get a low GDI score if the benefits of development are not evenly distributed between women and men. By the same token, if benefits are very evenly distributed, even low HDI scoring countries can get a high GDI score. The GEM is a specific measure of women's empowerment, and ranks countries according to women's share of seats in parliament, administrative and management jobs, professional and technical posts, and national income.2.3 Since they were launched in 1995, the GDI and GEM have shown that significant progress in closing gender gaps has been achieved in the last quarter of the 20th century, but that:
2.4 A key conclusion drawn from the UNDP analysis is that progress towards gender equality is not dependent on the income level of a society, but is more dependent on political will. Governments have made the most progress when they have been willing to put concerns about women's empowerment at the heart of policy, and drive through the changes necessary for real progress. The income level of a society appears to be less important than a serious commitment to improving opportunities for women. Some developing countries outperform much richer countries in the opportunities they afford women10.in no society do women fare as well as men;
10 The GDI was calculated for 143 countries for the 1999 Human Development Report. Of these, 43 had GDI ranks lower than their HDI ranks, revealing unequal progress in building women's capabilities compared with men. Sixty countries, however, had a higher GDI than HDI rank, suggesting that development was more equitable. The countries scoring highly for GDI were diverse, and included the poor as well as the rich. The report concluded that these results "... show that greater gender equality in human development does not depend on income level or stage of development. And they show that it can be achieved across a range of cultures".
|
... progress towards gender equality is not dependent on the
income level of a society, but is more dependent on political will ... |
11 For an interesting analysis of both positive and negative trends see: Progress of the World's Women 2000. UNIFEM Biennial Report. United Nations Development Fund for Women, New York, 2000.
Economic development and livelihood security
Human development
Personal security and violence against women
Basic services and infrastructure
Women and the environment
Empowerment and political representation
Disability
Diversity and the life-cycle
Rights of the child
Men, masculinities and power
Social attitudes and gender stereotyping
2.6 Inequalities between women and men manifest themselves across all key areas of development, in a variety of ways which vary significantly from place to place. Nonetheless, it is possible to point to general trends which create the backdrop for international development efforts.
2.7 According to the UN, women perform 53% of all economic activity in developing countries, but only about a third of their work is currently measured and acknowledged in national accounts, compared with three quarters of men's. An estimated US$16 trillion of global output is currently 'invisible', of which US$11 trillion is estimated to be produced by women12. Women's work in the so-called 'reproductive economy in raising families and maintaining the home has until recently been entirely ignored by accounting frameworks and economic analysis. Most women's work is unpaid and taken for granted.
12 Human Development Report, 1995. United Nations Development Programme, New York.2.8 Share of national income provides a rough measure of economic inequality between women and men. Figure 1 is drawn from the 1999 UNDP Gender-related Development Index and shows that throughout the world women have a significantly lower share of national income, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), than men. The figure also underlines the massive disparity in wealth between the industrial nations and developing countries. In the industrialised countries, women's share is on average US$17,660 per year compared with US$30,050 for men. In developing countries, women receive on average US$2,088 compared with US$4,374 for men. In the least developed countries, the averages are US$731 and US$1,258 respectively
2.9 Women are also disadvantaged by inequalities in the distribution of income and consumption within the household. In South Asia, there is evidence that women get a lesser share than men of food and other consumption goods. In urban Nigeria, a survey found that only 20% of wives were aware of how much their husbands earned. Data from Asia, Africa and Latin America show that men often spend more on personal consumption (including tobacco and alcohol) and women spend more on food, education and health. Women's expenditure is generally more beneficial to the household as a whole than men's13.
13 Various sources, cited in OECD-DAC/DCD Gender Training Programme 1998. Training Modules and Resources. Briefings on Development and Gender (BRIDGE), Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex, and OECD, Paris, 1998.2.10 Women receive only a very small share of credit from formal banking institutions, often because they are unable to provide collateral. When women do receive loans, these tend to be smaller than men's, despite their generally better track record in making repayments. In Latin America and the Caribbean, only 7 - 11% of the clients of formal credit institutions are women. In many African countries, despite the fact that they account for 60% of the labour force and contribute up to 80% of total food production, women receive less than 10% of the credit to small farmers, and only 1% of total credit to agriculture14. Women's rights to land and other assets are also widely constrained. In many countries, poor women risk losing their livelihood if they are widowed or separated from their husbands.
14 Human Development Report, 1995. UNDP, New York.Figure 1: GDP per capita (US$) by region and sex
(Source: UNDP Human Development Report, 1999)
2.11 The differential impact of globalisation and the opening up of world trade on the livelihoods and well-being of the poor is a new and challenging area of concern. Preliminary research, funded by DFID, suggests that these processes can bring both benefits and costs. New employment opportunities have undoubtedly been created, many for women. However, women in south and south-east Asia suffer low wages and poor working conditions as a result of discrimination in the labour market, while women in Africa are unable to benefit from the opening up of new markets because they lack property rights or are squeezed out of markets by cheaper imports15. International, as well as national, action is required to harness the forces of globalisation for the benefit of the poor and disadvantaged.
15 M. Fontana. S. Joekes, and R. Masika, Global Trade Expansion and Liberalisation: Gender Issues and Impacts. Report commissioned by the Department for International Development. Briefings on Development and Gender (BRIDGE), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, January 1998. See also 1999 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development. Globalization, Gender and Work. Department for Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. New York, 1999.
2.12 Important gains have been made in human development, with greater progress in the 20th century than ever before. Gender gaps in health and education are closing fast, but progress has been inconsistent, and, in some cases, disparities have increased rather than decreased. Declines in basic services, such as those experienced in sub-Saharan Africa between the mid 1970s and the 1990s, have hit women particularly hard. It is women who care for the sick and walk long distances to fetch water when the regular supply breaks down. As households often give lower priority to girls' education than boys', it is girls who will be withdrawn from schools when the costs of education rise.
2.13 Women have made significant gains in education, but with marked regional contrasts. Figure 2 shows literacy gaps by region. While women's literacy rates have increased to at least 75% in most of Latin America, the Caribbean, and eastern and south-eastern Asia, high rates of illiteracy still persist in much of Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. In 1997, in the least developed countries, fewer than tour out of ten women could read or write, compared with six out of ten men. The lowest rates for women were in south Asia, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa16.
16 Human Development Report, 1999. UNDP. New York.
|
... Every additional year of female education reduces child
mortality by 5-10% ... |
17 Similar setbacks have more recently been experienced in Asia in the wake of the financial crisis.Figure 2: Adult literacy rate (%) by region and sex18 World Education Report. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Paris, 1995.
(Source: UNDP Human Development Report, 1999)
2.15 Keeping girls out of school is costly and undermines development. Research by the World Bank19 has shown that education for girls is the single most effective way of tackling poverty. Women with even a few years of basic education have smaller, healthier families; are more likely to be able to work their way out of poverty; and are more likely to send their own children - girls and boys - to school. Child mortality is lower, the higher the number of years of education of the mother. Each additional year of female education is thought to reduce child mortality by 5-10%. Child nutrition and school performance are also improved. Countries which are failing to ensure that women obtain their right to an education, and free and equal rights and opportunities, are falling behind in all aspects of development20.
19 See M. A. Hill and E. M. King (eds), Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits and Policies. The World Bank, Washington D.C., 1993: and M. A. Hill and E. M. King, 'Women's education and economic well-being', in Feminist Economics, Vol. 1 No. 2, 1995.2.16 In sub-Saharan Africa, it has been argued that the cost to countries which have failed to give girls a fair chance of getting an education has been a reduction in economic growth of 0.7% every year for the last 30 years. As a consequence, those countries now have GNPs roughly 25% lower than if they had given girls a better chance21. A more specific World Bank estimate has suggested that education for female farmers in Kenya could help increase crop yields by as much as 24%22.20 Various sources, cited in OECD-DAC/DCD Gender Training Programme 1998. Training Modules and Resources. Briefings on Development and Gender (BRIDGE), Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex, and OECD, Paris, 1998.
21 M. A. Hill and E. M. King, 'Women's education and economic well-being', in Feminist Economics, Vol. 1 No. 2, 1995.2.17 In some developing countries, it is boys rather than girls who find it harder to attend or succeed at school, though they tend to maintain a distinct advantage in other aspects of life. In the Caribbean, boys often perform less well than girls, and in many pastoralist communities boys are unable to attend school because of their responsibilities for herding. In parts of the Middle East, boys from poor families in urban areas are often withdrawn from school to help out in the family business. The general pattern, though, is for girls to suffer more than boys.22 The World Bank has published a major study which clearly underlines the huge economic costs of gender discrimination in sub-Saharan Africa: Mark Blackden & Chuitra Bhanu, Gender, Growth, and Poverty Reduction. Special Program of Assistance for Africa, 1998 Status Report on Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank Technical Paper No. 428, Washington D.C., 1999. The report was prepared with funding assistance from DFID.
|
... Countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have not sent
enough girls to school over the past 30 years now have GNPs 25% lower than if
they had given them a better chance ... |
2.19 While fertility rates in the developed world are below population replacement levels, women in Africa still have an average of six children each. Rates of pregnancy among teenage girls have declined in the past 20 years, but are still too high. In Central America and sub-Saharan Africa, rates are five to seven times higher than in developed regions. In Central America, 18% of all births are to teenage mothers, while the rate in Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole is 13%23.
23 The World's Women 1995. Trends and Statistics. United Nations, New York, 1995.2.20 Pregnancy and childbirth have become safer for women in most of Asia and Latin America. At the same time, there has been little or no progress in most of sub-Saharan Africa where, in some countries, maternal mortality rates have risen. There have also been rises in maternal mortality in some countries in eastern Europe. Every year, of the 200 million women who become pregnant, 500,000 will die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Of the remainder, 20 million will suffer severe and long-term disability as a result of poorly managed pregnancy or delivery24. In some of the poorest countries, women have lifetime risks of maternal death of one in ten or higher25.
24 Women's Health: Improve our Health, Improve the World. World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva, 1995.25 WHO and World Bank data, cited in Gender and Development: Facts and Figures. Prepared for the Department for International Development by Briefings on Development and Gender (BRIDGE), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 1999.
|
... Every year 500,000 women will die because of pregnancy
or childbirth ... |
2.22 The number of women infected with HIV is now growing faster than men. In sub-Saharan Africa, women now make up 55% of the total of HIV-positive adults26. Overall, the proportion of HIV infected women to infected men has doubled since 1992 - to almost 50%. HIV is transmitted from men to women two to four times more easily than from women to men. Women tend to become infected at a younger age than men, and develop full-blown AIDS more quickly27. Changes in sexual behaviour, improvements in sexual and reproductive health services, and more power for women to control their sex lives, are all required. An important breakthrough was achieved in 1999 at the five-year review of the Cairo conference. New international targets were set to ensure that information, education and services to reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS are available to at least 90% of 15-24 year olds by 2005, and to at least 95% of this group by 2010.
26 See The World's Women 2000. Trends and Statistics. United Nations, New York, 2000, p. 68.2.23 Life expectancy is one of the few indicators where men generally fare worse than women. This has increased almost everywhere, for both women and men. But men continue to have a lower life expectancy than women in virtually every country28. In some countries in Eastern Europe, life expectancy for men has declined. The AIDS epidemic is beginning to have a significant impact on life expectancy in an increasing number of countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa29. Women's longer life span makes them more vulnerable than men to isolation and neglect in old age.27 Source: UNAIDS, 1999 figures.
28 According to the 1999 Human Development Report, the global average life expectancy for women is 68.9 years compared with 64.7 years for men. Variations between rich and poor countries are high: in industrialised nations the averages are 80.9 and 74.5 years for women and men respectively, compared with 52.6 and 50.8 in least developed countries. The worst rates are in sub-Saharan Africa, with average life expectancy being 50.3 for women and 47.5 for men.29 See The World's Women 2000. Trends and Statistics. United Nations, New York, 2000, p. 54. In southern Africa life expectancy has dropped during the 1990s by an average of five years for women and men, to 51 and 48 respectively. This compares with 80 and 74 years in western Europe.
2.24 The most shocking manifestation of women's inequality is gender-based violence. Women are at risk from violence everywhere in the world, and in every walk of life. Practices likes female genital mutilation, and other forms of physical disfigurement, also remain a serious threat to many women around the world. Women can not always depend on justice systems to protect them from violence. In some countries, wife-beating is not even regarded as an offence.
2.25 In parts of south and east Asia, some traditions see girls as a burden rather than an asset. Infanticide, sex-selective abortion, and preferential care and feeding of boys, particularly in early childhood, appear to lie behind demographic data which show alarming evidence of "missing" women in some populations30. Even where governments are doing their best to stamp these practices out, progress is slow.
30 Iï most regions of the world, women slightly outnumber men. In parts of south and west Asia, China, and the Pacific, women are fewer than men to an extent which can not be explained by biological and physiological factors alone. In India and Pakistan, there are only 91 women for every 100 men, while in Bangladesh the ratio is 95:100. In China the ratio of girls to boys born appeared to decline from 93:100 to 88:100 during the 1980s. In Europe, the girl: boy ratio is 105:100. Source: The World's Women 2000. Trends and Statistics. United Nations, New York, 2000, pp. 7-8.2.26 Data on violence against women, rape, and female genital mutilation is hard to come by, but these problems are acknowledged to be widespread. It has been claimed that domestic violence may be the leading cause of injury and death to women worldwide31. Data from sample surveys compiled by the UN in 1995 indicated that as many as 75% of low caste women in India, and 60% of women in Tanzania, Ecuador, and Sri Lanka say they have been subjected to domestic violence and sexual assault by their partner32. So-called "honour killings", dowry-related violence, and non-consensual sex in marriage are also becoming issues of increasing concern33.
31 J. Seager. The State of Women in the World Atlas. Penguin, London, 1997.32 The World's Women 1995. Trends and Statistics. United Nations, New York, 1995.
33 These practices were explicitly condemned during the five year review of the Beijing conference at the UN General Assembly Special Session in June 2000.
2.27 Women are highly dependent on basic transport, energy, secure shelter, and water and sanitation services to enable them to carry out their economic and social roles. Many of these are often poorly related to women's needs, significantly adding to the costs for women of carrying out their responsibilities and reducing the effectiveness and efficiency of public investment in these areas. Failure in design work to address cultural considerations may severely constrain women's use of sanitation and other facilities. More gender-aware approaches will enable planners, engineers, and managers to bring important gains to economic and social development, as well as making an important contribution to reducing the burden on women.
2.28 Women and men often have different relationships with the environment, due to the gender division of labour and other factors. As a result, they may be affected differently by environmental change, which in turn may itself affect gender relations. For example, where women are responsible for collecting fuel wood, deforestation may result in longer journeys, sometimes leading to men themselves having to take over this responsibility. Gender relations are thus interwoven with environmental and natural resource management. In spite of this, women are often excluded from decision-making processes related to these issues. This can result in women's needs and rights being overlooked, potential hazards being ignored, and opportunities for better environmental protection and development being missed.
2.29 Despite their educational and other advances, women still face major obstacles in entering senior positions in society. Political participation is a human right, recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Women are poorly represented at all levels of political life and decision making, leading to the widespread neglect of women's priorities at all levels by politicians and bureaucrats. Figures published in 1999 show that women hold only 12.7% of the worlds parliamentary seats, and only 8.7% of those in the least developed countries34.
34 Human Development Report 1999. UNDP, New York.
|
...Women hold only 12% of the world's parliamentary seats,
and only 8.7% of those in the least developed countries... |
2.31 Disability is a major cause of social exclusion, and is both a cause and consequence of poverty. Women with disabilities suffer multiple disadvantages and severe challenges to the achievement of their human rights. Disability makes it even less likely that girls can go to school and be economically independent in adult life. They are also far more at risk from abuse and exploitation. Strategies which seek to promote women's empowerment must take specific account of the rights and needs of girls and women with disabilities, and ensure that these are considered in the mainstream of development efforts.35
35 For a more detailed analysis of DFID's views on disability see Disability, Poverty and Development, DFID Issues Paper, Department for International Development, London, 2000.
2.32 Diversity is a key characteristic of women's lives and directly impacts on their empowerment and development needs. Although the human rights of women are universal, their strategic needs vary considerably from place to place, both within and between societies, and throughout the life-cycle. These factors are central to a proper understanding of women's empowerment, but have only recently been considered in any detail in development thinking. Very often women's diversity is subsumed into wider analyses of cultural, social and economic differences within and between societies, and the different stages of the life-cycle, and hence overlooked.
2.33 Significant attention has been paid to women's needs and rights in adulthood, particularly during their child-bearing years, and increasing attention is being paid to their rights in childhood and adolescence. More still needs to be done, however, to fully understand the challenges posed by old age and by abrupt changes in status brought about my marital breakdown or widowhood, conflict or humanitarian crises. The particular circumstances of women in minority or indigenous groups, or as migrants, are only sketchily understood.
2.34 A full understanding of what is required to promote gender equality and women's empowerment will require a deeper analysis of these factors, and a recognition that women's own development aspirations are likely to reflect their diversity.
2.35 All children are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and it would be incorrect to say that girls are always the worst affected. Overall, however, they tend to suffer more than boys. This is particularly true, as we have already seen, in relation to education and their longer term prospects for empowerment, independence, and self-expression36.
36 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which virtually all countries have signed up, sets out in detail the global values aimed at protecting children's interests and giving all children the best possible chance for a free and dignified life and secure livelihood.2.36 The sexual exploitation of children is a particularly abhorrent violation of child rights. It is estimated by the ILO that up to 95% of child prostitutes are girls. As many as 800,000 children in Thailand, 400,000 in Brazil, 100,000 in Philippines, and countless thousands elsewhere, have been forced into prostitution. Many others are compelled to work, from very early on in their lives, to help their families fend off poverty. The nations of the world are beginning to take steps to address these challenges. The conditions for eliminating violations of children's rights require the underlying causes of poverty to be tackled.
2.37 Although women are more frequently and widely disadvantaged than men, it can not be taken for granted that this is true in every case. Gender inequalities are rooted in the way in which relations between women and men are structured and determined by social convention. Men are just as affected by gender roles as women. Until recently, there has been a marked reluctance among gender analysts to turn their attention to men, ideas about masculinity and their implications for gender relations and how these issues bear on inequalities of power between women and men.
2.38 Recent academic work in the UK has pointed out this deficiency in the analytical frameworks being used to assess gender inequalities37, and has called for an expansion of the gender studies agenda to encompass men as well as women.
37 See, for example Men, Masculinities and Development. Politics, Policies and Practice. IDS Bulletin Vol. 31 No. 2, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, April 2000.2.39 A key issue in the study of male identities (or masculinities), and how they are defined and reinforced, is the underlying factors which establish and reinforce male power, both in the household and in society. A more complete understanding of these may help to identify situations when men are experiencing patterns of discrimination, what changes will strengthen women's bargaining power, and enable men to better understand the benefits change will bring.
2.40 Gender discrimination is deeply embedded in, and reinforced by, social attitudes. Real changes in relations between men and women require real changes in attitudes, by both men and women. In many respects, these are the hardest things of all to change.
2.41 Donor countries which support women's equality have sometimes been accused of seeking to impose their own values on others. While respect for peoples culture is a right, so too is respect for the human rights of women. Both are recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Women have been oppressed and treated unequally in all cultures, and in all cultures this is an abuse of human rights. An underlying guiding principle in addressing attitudes and social values is the importance of moving forward at a pace, and in a direction, determined by women themselves. In the worst cases, women's lives can literally be at stake if they challenge the existing social order head on. International support is of great importance to protect women's rights to speak out.
