Women and development

Women and Development

Women of the World
Of the world's 1.3 billion poor people, it is estimated that nearly 70 per cent are women.
Between 75 and 80 per cent of the world's 27 million refugees are women and children.
Only 28 women have been elected heads of state or government in this century.
Of the world's nearly one billion illiterate adults, two-thirds are women.

Women of the World
2/3 of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls.
The majority of women earn about 3/4 of the pay of males for the same work
In most countries, women work approximately twice the unpaid time men do.
The value of women's unpaid housework and community work is estimated to be worth $11 trillion

Millennium Development Goal #3
Promote Gender Equality and Empower women
How?
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Progress in Education?
Southern Asia has made the most progress in gender parity since 2000. Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Asia and Northern Africa have also made strides in reducing gender disparity.
Drought, food shortages, armed conflict, poverty, child labor, and HIV and AIDS contribute to low school enrolment and high dropout rates for both boys and girls but prove to be especially devastating for girls.

Progress in employment?
The share of women in paid employment outside the agricultural sector has continued to increase slowly and reached 41 per cent in 2008.
In Southern Asia, Northern Africa and Western Asia, only 20 per cent of those employed outside agriculture are women.

Progress in Politics?
Women are slowly rising to political power, but mainly when boosted by quotas and
other special measures
Reached an all-time high of 19 per cent in 2010 a 67 per cent increase since 1995
58 countries still have 10% or fewer women members of parliament

Role of Women
Socialization: The process in which values and perceptions help to determine our roles in society
Roles: Expectations regarding the duties, rights and skills of individuals.
1998 Southern Baptist Convention: Women submit themselves graciously to their husbands leadership
1999: Queen Noor does attend her husband’s funeral

Gender Roles
Gender roles are shaped by history and culture.
Plantation agriculture in Africa weakened role of women as farmers…strengthened role of men as head of family

Status of Women
Status: Position in social, economic and political hierarchy.
Socially Constructed: Societies use subjective standards to determine who will have a higher or lower status.
Tradition, religion, economics, political and social beliefs determine status

Status of Women
Saudi Arabia: women cannot drive or vote. Cannot study work, travel, marry, obtain medical contract without consent of male relative

Women in Islamic Countries
Men in most Islamic countries are permitted to have four wives and divorce with three words
Egypt: rapists escape punishment if they marry their victim.
Women cannot marry non-Muslims since Men are head of family.
2 female witnesses=1 male witness
4 male witnesses required to prove rape…otherwise adultery and stoning.

Role of Women in Development
Women who are educated are twice as likely to send their children to school, have fewer children than those who are denied schooling, delay their first pregnancies, and have healthier children, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

Women spend close to 75% of their available funds on food, while men spend only 22% of their income on food for the family.
There would be an estimated 13 million fewer undernourished children in South Asia if men and women had equal influence in household decisions

Worldwide, 20 to 50% of women experience some degree of domestic violence during marriage and at least one in three females has been physically or sexually abused, often repeatedly and often by a relative or acquaintance.

The World Bank estimates that violence rivals cancer as a cause of morbidity and mortality for women of childbearing age.
Women produce 80% of the
food on the planet, but only own
less than 2% of the world’s
land and receive less than
10% of agricultural assistance.

Women, Children and Development

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Assessment
Child deaths are falling, but not quickly enough to reach the target

Progress?
Since 1990, the mortality rate for children under age five in developing countries dropped by 28 per cent—from 100 deaths per 1,000 live births to 72 in 2008
Which means: In 2008, 10,000 fewer children died each day than in 1990

Progress?
Despite Achievements, many countries still have very high under-5 mortality rates..some countries have made no progress
Sub Saharan Africa: 1 in 8 will die before 5
South Asia: 1 in 14 will die before 5

Most of these lives could have been
saved through low-cost prevention and treatment measures, including antibiotics for acute respiratory infections, oral
rehydration for diarrhoea, immunization, and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and appropriate drugs for
malaria.

What about those that live beyond 5 years?
Child Labor: 218 million children age 5-14 working in developing countries full time, 317.4 part time
70% employed in agriculture, forestry, fishing
Viewed as essential contributors to families

Military Use of Children
3 forms: Child Soldiers, Support Roles (sex slaves, messengers, look outs), Human Shields.
In over twenty countries around the world, children are direct participants in war

Child Soldiers
Half of the world's child soldiers are in Africa (between 100,000-200,000)
Uganda Lord’s Resistance Army: abducted over 30,000 children over time to become soldiers…
Sudan: 17k children in armed forces (2004)
2nd Congo War: 30,000 children fighting in conflict
Somalia: 200,000 children carry arms

Child Soldiers
Afghanistan: thousands of child soldiers used in civil war and recruited by Taliban
Nepal: 6,000-9,000 children serving in Maoist forces, often kidnapped.
Sri Lanka: Children often used as soldiers and suicide bombers
Palestine: children often recruited as suicide bombers
Myanmar: children forcibly taken from street to join state military

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Birth is risky in developing countries because most women deliver without skilled care.
Leading cause of death: hemorrhage and hypertension
Both highly preventable with proper medical attendance

TARGET: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.
Women should receive care from a trained health-care practitioner at least four times during the course of their pregnancies
Only one in three rural women in developing regions receive the recommended care during
pregnancy

Access to contraception could reduce maternal mortality by 27%

Why withdraw girls from school?
Help in household chores, fetching water
Privacy issues, puberty, lack of facilities
Better to invest in boy for future of parents
Fear of violence/rape while walking to school

.
“Boys have more rights than girls; parents don’t give heavy work to boys. Our brothers go to school; girls are not allowed because they have lots of housework to do”.
“ When parents are too poor, daughters should stop going to school because they can help in housework and in earning income.
“Daughters should always be around the kitchen”
“Girls are not as clever as boys”

Why not invest in Girls?
Daughters are not as valuable
Joint Family System
Dowry
Inheritance and continuity of name
Free labor, but only as a child.
To have a daughter is to plant a seed in someone else’s garden

Women’s Issues in the Developing World
Dowry
Honor Killing
Forced Veiling
Female Genital Mutilation
Bride Price

Dowry
Money given to a husband for marrying a woman.
Banned but still widely used
6,000 women die from dowry abuse yearly in India…likely much higher
Dowry often much higher than a yearly salary
Dowry demands now include: cars, homes, large appliances

Honor Killing
Women equal bodies which male relatives have absolute control, including destroying them.
Women are slaughtered because they are deemed to be unchaste…this is a threat to the family’s honor
Often the victim was raped, but still viewed as unpure.
Marrying or divorce without family’s consent also common cause.

Forced Veiling
How Do we Know if it’s forced?
In Iran and Saudi Arabia women have no choice
In other Islamic societies, a woman may not want to veil, but succumbs to societal pressure or fear of violence.
Women caught without Burqa in Afghanistan under Taliban severely beaten.

Bride Price
Amount paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom
Lower classes more vulnerable to exploitation.
Virgins and educated women receive more money
As a result girls are often sold from families at young age to receive money.

Widows in South Asia
Widows often seen as curse and responsible for death of husband.
Until recently all widows were rejected and forced to live in colonies away from society
Women in India committed act of Sati (suicide by jumping on husbands funeral pyre) after husband’s death…viewed as hero
Head shaved, only wear white
clothes, not allowed to be adorned
after death of husband

Why do women not leave violence?
Taboo of divorcee (family and community will not accept a female divorcee)
Other option is to live on street/poverty
Often uneducated no ability to obtain job or housing alone
Fear of Death

The Pink Sari Gang
Thrash men who have abandoned or beaten their wives
Shame wrongdoers and corrupt officials
Defend untouchables
‘The poor and women
are never defended…we
take justice into our own
hands’

Foeticide/Infanticide
100 million women that should exist, are absent in the world.
50 million women are ‘missing’ from India.
Number is larger than all combined famines of 20th century, death toll of WWI and casualties from global epidemics including AIDS.
Naturally the sex ratio should be 1000:1000

Sex Ratios by State
Punjab: 876:1000 boys
Haryana: 861: 1000 boys
Delhi: 821: 1000 boys
Why?
Poverty-No- Punjab and Delhi have highest income per capita and lowest poverty.
Social Development? –No Punjab and Delhi have some of the highest literacy in India
More rural?-No, Delhi 100% urban, practice of sex selective abortion more common in urban areas.

Literacy and Sex Ratios 1981-2001 (Selected States)

Who?
Sex selective abortion generally used by wealthy and educated
Killing of infant after birth more common in villages, where technology is not available.
A problem of the past?
No

Why?
Joint Family
Dowry
High Cost of Weddings (Female’s Parents pay)
Middle Class income“$4,545 to $23,000 a year”. Wedding budget: $34,000
Land Ownership and inheritance.
Cultural Tradition

Consequences?
Less women=less wives=more trafficking
Poor Bangladeshis sell daughters for $11 to $22
Transport of Culture. Indian communities in UK also have low sex ratios.
Bride Burning: Dowry creates problem of unwanted females, Dowry also makes females lose their lives once married.
Most dowry deaths reported as accidental kitchen fires

Rape as tool of war: DRC
Congo Conflict: Deadliest since WWII; 5 million dead
Women usually raped, not killed: victims range from age 3-75
In some villages 90% women raped
Brothers and Fathers forced to rape sisters, mothers, daughters; if not they are killed.
Many women blamed for their rape and shunned from community

Women often raped with broken bottles, bayonets, shot between legs. Later unable to control bodily functions
Rape has become norm
Scale and systematic nature perhaps worst ever
Women taken as slaves and raped every day
Questions
Just another consequence of war?
Result of sexual desire or force/power?

Females continuing the tradition
Cultural Tradition?
How?
Least severe: removal of clitoris
Most extreme: Vagina stitched close with only opening left for urine to pass
Done with razor blades, often no antiseptic, many women are injured, some die.

70 million girls and women living today have been subjected to FGMin Eastern Africa and Yemen, and Kurdish Iraq
Why?
To control or reduce female sexuality.
Initiation into womanhood
Hygiene and aesthetic reasons
Enhances fertility
Viewed as religious requirement

Women and development

by Andrea Neal-Malji

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