Women make up half of the world's population and yet represent a staggering 70% of the world's poor. For the millions of women living in poverty, their lives are a litany of injustice, discrimination and obstacles that get in the way of achieving their basic needs of good health, safe childbirth, education and employment. Overcoming these inequalities and ensuring that women benefit from development requires that the needs and desires of women are not only taken into account, but be put front and centre. Our current record shames us.
We live in a world in which women living in poverty face gross inequalities and injustice from birth to death. From poor education to poor nutrition to vulnerable and low pay employment, the sequence of discrimination that a woman may suffer during her entire life is unacceptable but all too common. What does this look like throughout a woman's life?
Karen hilltribe woman and child in northern Thailand. Photo: K. Williamson.
As a baby born into poverty, she might be abandoned and left to die, through the practice of female infanticide. Worldwide, there are 32 million 'missing women'1.
During her childhood, her proper feeding and nutrition may be neglected out of family favouring of male children.
As a girl or woman she may be a victim of female genital mutilation and cutting. 100 to 140 million girls and women around the world have undergone genital mutilation, including 6.5 million in Western countries2. Embedded in cultural norms, this act is often carried out with the consent of mothers, in conditions that lead to lifelong pain, infection and premature death.
As an adolescent she may be required to have an early marriage. Young pregnancy puts girls at risk of maternal deaths.
"a mother dies every minute"
At child-bearing age, she could die from haemorrhaging during childbirth, one of the most common causes of maternal mortality for anaemic or undernourished pregnant women. Of the 500,000 women who die in childbirth every year, 99% live in developing countries3. In other words, in developing countries, a girl or a woman dies every minute in giving birth4.
At working age, she does not have the same job opportunities and receives less pay for the same work. Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, but earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property. On average, women earn half of what men earn5.
Informal employment is a greater source of employment for women than for men6. The reality of the informal economy for women is more stark. While it can offer life-changing opportunities to earn money, the low pay and lack of social protection makes women vulnerable and open to exploitation7.
Over her lifetime, she may suffer unimaginable violence and neglect, often in silence. Three million women die each year because of gender-based violence, and four million girls and women a year are sold into prostitution. One woman in five is a victim of rape or attempted rape during her lifetime8. Gender-based violence takes more of a toll on women's health than that of traffic accidents and malaria combined9.
As a woman living in poverty, she represents the majority of the world's poor. Women make up 70% of the world's one billion poorest people10.
These stark inequalities happen everyday, everywhere around the world.
Yet despite the clear message that figures send, progress towards gender equity in development is deplorably slow and the obstacles of political indifference are nearly overwhelming. In the 2005 Massey Lectures, speaking on his role as UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis argues that11,
"The atmosphere of benign neglect, compounded by the rooted gender inequality, all adds up to a death sentence for countless millions of women in the developing world. For whatever reason, we can't break the monolith of indifference and paralysis."
In many societies, women struggle with exercising their human rights, fulfilling their basic needs and participating in decision-making. Such disadvantage is both ubiquitous and historical amongst the world's poor. Modern societies have developed on unequal foundations of legal frameworks and economic structures that undervalue women, label them as 'caregivers' and fail to recognize them as fundamental participants of a healthy society. The efforts in recent decades to address these inequities have been met by astonishing lack of support, to the point at which Lewis has argued that12,
"There is no greater emblem of international hypocrisy than the promise of women's rights."
Women and the MDGs
Gender issues are addressed specifically in three MDGs.
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger.
Target: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
MDG 5: Improve maternal health.
Target: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
Target: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health."
Underlining the degree of inequality women face, the MDG on maternal health is blighted by the least progress of all eight goals (except for environmental sustainability, which largely lacks indicators)13. This is despite the fact that the main contributors to reduced mortality – elementary education and basic sanitation – are achievable through steps as basic as the construction of toilet blocks in schools.
But gender inequality has a much greater impact than these explicit MDGs. Gender dynamics underpin all of the MDGs, and to make progress, we need specific gender-sensitive policies and action across the entire project14.
Women deserve equal opportunities, equal access to resources and services, and equal voice in decisions that affect them. Yet not only is this a human rights issue. Societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay the cost of greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance, and a lower living standard of their people15. It is crucial to address women's poverty and inequality because of the potential role women can play in turning poverty on its head.
Girls can change the world
The Girl Effect (http://www.girleffect.org/) video looks at the social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate in their society. They argue that adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world, but are often invisible to their societies and to our media. Check it out.
Yet despite this inspirational insight into the realities of poverty and development, the Girl Effect's youtube video is littered with calls of "the girl effect is sexist" and "far-fetched" and comments like "This video is wrong. No one can give it to them. If women want it, let them take it." It is a chilling demonstration of the callous ignorance of the state of women in the developed world.
What can we do?
Educate girls
Currently, 50 million of the 72 million children currently not enrolled in primary school are girls, and two thirds of the nearly 800 million adults who lack basic literacy skills are women16. The impact of educating girls is much greater than the individual. It enables women to have a greater impact on reducing poverty in their communities, as within most communities, women are responsible for providing food, health care and education of their families. Educating girls has creates a mutually reinforcing effect of multiple benefits, such as:
• Reducing women's fertility rates: educated girls have fewer children17.
• Lowering infant and child mortality rates: educated girls are better able to care for their children.
• Lowering maternal mortality rates: educated girls have better access to health care and information
• Protecting against HIV/AIDS infection: educated girls practice safer sex.
• Increasing women's labor force participation rates and earnings: educated girls have better access to jobs.
• Creating intergenerational education benefits: educated girls are more likely to send their children to school.
Micro-credit and income generation
For many women, micro credit loans represent their first opportunity to handle money. In Bangladesh, researchers have found that having access to small loans has increased women's mobility, ability to make financial decision and political and legal awareness18. Of the 100 million poorest clients of microfinance programs, over 80% are women19.
Gender mainstreaming
This is about thinking about women (as well as men) at every step. If you build a community centre, are there suitable toilets for women? If you hold a meeting, is it at a time women can attend? If you invest in infrastructure, does it address the specific needs of women? For every dollar that is spent, how much of it benefits women? Due to the bias towards men in development programming, if gender issues are not addressed specifically, they tend to be left by the wayside by default.
Real change is possible when women are supported with the resources and political committment that has been promised to them by the international community for decades. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan argues that20:
“there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, or to reduce infant and maternal mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health - including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation. And I would also venture that no policy is more important in preventing conflict, or in achieving reconciliation after a conflict has ended.”
1. E. Oster, 2005. Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women, p. 2. Available here.
2. Andro and Lesclingand, 2007. 'Female genital mutilation: the situation in Africa and in France' in Population and societies. N°438, October 2007. Available here.
3. United Nations, 2009. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009. New York, UN, p.26. Available here from the UN MDGs website.
4. Center for Reproductive Rights, 2009. Bringing Maternal Mortality Front and Center. http://reproductiverights.org/en/feature/bringing-maternal-mortality-front-and-center
5. UNDP, 2006. Taking Gender Equality Seriously: Making Progress, Meeting New Challenges. New York, UNDP, p.9. Available here.
6. International Labour Office, 2002. Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture. ILO, p.8. Available here.
7. For example, ILO, 2002, Women and Men in the Informal Economy, and UNIFEM, 2005, Progress of the World's Women: Women, Work and Poverty, New York, UNIFEM. Available here.
8. UN Millennium Project, 2005. Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women. Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. London, Earthscan, p.113. Available here.
9. UN Millennium Project, 2005. Taking Action, pp. 15, 110.
10. This statistic varies, but common figures range from 60% (e.g. UNDP, 2006. Taking Gender Equality Seriously, p.3) to 70% (e.g. Okiocredit, Netherlands).
11. Stephen Lewis, 2005. Lecture 4: Women: Half the World, Barely Represented. Dalhousie University, Halifax. Mp3 downloadable here.
12. Stephen Lewis, 2005. Lecture 4: Women: Half the World, Barely Represented.
13. United Nations, 2009. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, p.26.
14. ODI (Overseas Development Institute), 2008. Briefing paper 42, September 2008: Gender and the MDGs. Available here.
15. World Bank, 2007. World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. World Bank; World Bank, 2001. Engendering development through gender equality in rights, resources, and voice. World Bank.
16. UNESCO, 2008. Global Monitoring Report 2009 - Overcoming Inequality: Why Governance Matters. France, UNESCO, p.2. Available here.
17. S. Haddock and R. Cincotta, 2006. Closing the Gender Gap in Education: Is There Evidence of Short-term Declines in Adolescent Fertility? (volume 1, issue 5). Washington, Population Action International. Available here.
18. M. Pitt , S. Khandker and J. Cartwright, 2003. Does Micro-Credit Empower Women? Evidence from Bangladesh. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2998. World Bank.
19. H. Majoor and J. Manders, 2009. Women’s empowerment: Comparing concepts & assessing implications for microfinance. Netherlands, Oikocredit. Available here.
20. UNFPA, Quotes on Human Rights.
At working age, she does not have the same job opportunities and receives less pay for the same work. Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, but earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property. On average, women earn half of what men earn5.
Educate girls
