Women and Gender Issues
Gender Differences in Poverty and Household Composition Through the Life Cycle
Putting Gender Equality at the Centre of Social Protection Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Working With Men and Boys For Gender Equality
Recommendations into Action Brief COVID-19: Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls
Social Protection and Its Effects on Gender Equality: A Literature Review
COVID-19 and Ensuring Safe Transport with and for Women and Girls
Expanding Health-Care Access in the United States
The United States has never assured the human right to health including the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and access to all medical services. While there is some public financing of health care mainly for older people and low-income children the country largely relies on private health insurers and providers using a decentralized and lightly regulated market-based system. This publication focuses on the ways in which women have been impacted by the Affordable Care Act (usually referred to as ACA or ‘Obamacare’).
Trade Liberalization, Social Policy Development and Labour Market Outcomes of Chinese Women and Men in the Decade After China’s Accession to the World Trade Organization
How trade liberalization affects women’s position in the labour market and what role public policy should play to make the process work better for women are among some of the most debated issues in academic communities and in policy-making arenas. This work sheds light on these contentious issues by analysing the trends in labour market outcomes of women and men in China in the decade after its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The publication reviews the changes associated with China’s economic reforms and opening to international trade and investment since the process started in the late 1970s. Since the early 2000s a wide range of policy measures have been introduced to strengthen labour market regulations reduce inequality and increase social security. However most of these policy initiatives were ‘gender neutral’ paying inadequate attention to the institutional constraints that disadvantaged women in the labour market.
Universal Health Coverage, Gender Equality and Social Protection
This discussion paper focuses on the interconnections between policies to move toward universal health care (UHC) as a key element of social protection and those to advance gender equality women’s empowerment and human rights. Based on an analysis of country experiences it shows how gender is a key fulcrum on which all health system elements are leveraged and is hence central to achieving UHC.
The Indian Labour Market
This work provides an in-depth analysis of trends in labour outcomes of women in India based on employment-unemployment surveys. The publication brings out the gender differentials that exist in the employment status of women and men despite the existence of legal and policy framework for the empowerment of women in the country. The labour force participation rates (LFPRs) of women are not only less than half those of men but also declined in 2011–2012. Age marital status presence of children socio-religious status area of residence level of education and relative affluence of households are some of the determinants of labour force participation of women and men in India.
Financing for Gender Equality in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals
This publication identifies a series of macro-level tools to create a supportive environment and generate the resources to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to gender equality. A key argument is that financing for gender equality can be self-sustaining because of the feedback effects from gender equality to economy-wide well-being. The author explores investments into physical and social infrastructures as well as monetary policy tools to promote gender equality.
Transnational Families, Care Arrangements and the State in Costa Rica and Nicaragua
Nicaragua has the second-highest emigration rate in Central America behind El Salvador and 40 per cent of Nicaraguan households receive remittances. In contrast to migrants from other Central American countries however Nicaraguan migrants are more likely to move within the region to Costa Rica than to the United States. This paper is concerned specifically with the implications of migration within Central America for family life. Focusing on the case of Costa Rica and Nicaragua the paper argues that the provision of care in Nicaraguan transnational families occurs in the context of multiple insecurities both historical and contemporary. In this sense migration represents both a solution to the insecure climate of care provision and a source of further insecurity. The paper frames this analysis within scholarship on the privatization of care work caregiving in transnational families and historical patterns of diverse family configurations. It then draws on more than 24 months of ethnographic research between 2009 and 2016 including interviews and participant observation with migrants living in Costa Rica and their families in Nicaragua to show how Nicaraguan families develop strategies based on a history of informal and flexible caregiving. In particular marriage informality and grandmother caregiving are highlighted. While these informal strategies allow families to navigate the challenges migration and family separation entail they also contribute to continued vulnerability and reinforce the gendered burdens of caregiving within transnational families.
Investing in Gender-Equal Sustainable Development
This work develops an agenda for investing in sustainable development with particular emphasis on local priorities poverty alleviation and gender equality. Sustainable development can take many different pathways even within the dominant ‘three-pillar’ paradigm (economy-environment-society) of sustainability. The author draws on the vast literature on access to basic services for the poor to argue that universal and gender-equal access cannot be guaranteed primarily by voluntary mechanisms (i.e. through market forces or through the non-governmental sector). Universal access needs a renewal of the civic contract between the state and its citizens. As we begin the post-2015 era promoting public action towards gender-equal development should become a priority for the sustainable development agenda.
Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in the Context of Child Custody and Child Maintenance
The division of care and responsibility for children including financial care is usually determined by the family law of the State. This study identifies some of the most prevalent custody and child maintenance regimes in cases of divorce dissolution of a civil union and separation of parents. It examines the various regimes with particular emphasis on their impact on gender equality and women’s rights. Until the 19th century a male prerogative over guardianship and legal custody of children was the norm in Roman law and in secular systems. The male prerogative has been rescinded in secular law systems in accordance with the international human rights law requirement of the elimination of discrimination against women in the family. However it has been retained in patriarchal religious and customary systems which are endorsed by those States that maintain theocratic religious-based or plural legal systems. Three overarching issues relating to custody may negatively impact women’s rights: domestic violence the ongoing danger of which is often neglected in custody or visitation awards; the weaker bargaining position of women in the family as a result of patriarchal legal cultural or economic contexts which will disadvantage them in cases where the custody is subject to negotiation; and interpretation of the best interest of the child in a gender-biased way.
Costing of a Package of Family-friendly Transfers and Services to Advance Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
This paper presents a costing analysis for a set of family-friendly services and transfers: income protection for children people of working age and older persons; universal health coverage; and early childhood care and education and long-term care services. The social protection and care policies that are included in the costing have enormous significance for families and broader society and their implementation would have particularly important impacts for women since they are over-represented among those without income security they face specific life course contingencies and they take on a highly disproportionate share of unpaid care work. Previous work studied different components of this package more in depth often also providing projections for the future. The comparative advantage of the present study is that it looks at an integrated package of family-friendly services and transfers and estimates the costs for a large sample of countries (151 to 166 depending on the scenario). The costing shows that such a package is affordable in many countries. Depending on the scenario median costs range between 4.6 and 10.1 per cent of GDP. Those countries that cannot finance the full package can initially afford at least some of its critical elements such as health care or income support.
The Evolution of Marriage and Relationship Recognition in Western Jurisdictions
Marriage as both a legal and social institution has long been the subject of critique for its role in the oppression of women. However the institution has undergone significant change in western jurisdictions particularly in the last few decades which have seen (among others) divorce reform the rise of prenuptial agreements and the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. These—coupled with social changes in attitudes towards gendered roles within marriage—have arguably resulted in an evolution of the institution. This paper explores the extent to which the legal institution of marriage in western jurisdictions has changed to reflect greater gender equality. It draws on a number of key illustrative examples: the gendered division of labour division of assets on divorce the introduction of same-sex marriage and some examples from the expanding “menu” of relationship recognition. While significant advances have been made particularly in terms of formal legal equality this paper argues that there are still important respects in which gender equality is lacking in contemporary marriage in the West. The aim of this paper is to give a broad overview of marriage and relationship recognition and the examples are necessarily jurisdictionally limited and not intended to be reflective of the legal position across all western jurisdictions.
The Gender Dimensions of Pension Systems
Gender equality is one of the key challenges confronted by pension systems around the world. In a context of gendered labour markets contributory pension systems face several constraints to guarantee universal and adequate pension benefits for women. Women’s life courses are characterized by longer periods dedicated to taking care of others lower labour market participation more part-time work and lower earnings. All these features compromise their pension entitlements in pension systems that link benefits to paid work contributions and earnings. This publication deals with the challenges and constraints that pension systems face to be gender equitable and the policy alternatives to address these challenges. This work shows that crucial policy choices for the protection of women concern the conditions for entitlements in pension systems (based on either work need or citizenship) the types of transfers that are promoted between women and men the policy tools available to offset gender differences in paid work earnings and unpaid work (such as contribution credits) and the protection of the most vulnerable social groups through redistributive benefits.
Does Group Farming Empower Rural Women?
Few programmes for economically empowering rural women in India have focused seriously on farming—the one occupation in which the women have most experience. Hence two state-level initiatives in the early 2000s stand out both because they focused on improving women’s livelihoods within agriculture itself and because of the innovative institutional form by which they sought to do so namely group farming. The initiatives encouraged rural women to lease in land collectively pool their labour and capital and cultivate jointly on a voluntary basis. Hence they recognized women as farmers outside the domain of family farms under which most cultivation is done globally and in which women are typically unpaid family workers with little autonomy. This paper based on the author’s detailed primary surveys in the two states examines whether group farming can enable women farmers to overcome resource constraints and gain economically. Can it also empower them socially and politically? Since the approach to group farming differs notably in the two states the paper examines which approach is more effective and why. To date there has been no systematic study of group farming based on carefully collected quantitative and qualitative data in either state. The lessons learned from these experiences can help not only in strengthening group farming further but also in assessing how these models could be replicated in other regions.
Disrupted Families
By the end of 2016 an estimated 6.5 million Syrian citizens were internally displaced and more than 4.8 million Syrians had fled to neighbouring countries. While roughly half of all displaced and refugee Syrians are female around three quarters of the estimated 550000 Syrian asylum seekers who have arrived in Germany since the outbreak of the conflict are male. This gender imbalance is mainly due to the dangerous flight routes to Germany and the high costs of smugglers. Due to changing German asylum policies and practices lengthy procedures and bureaucratic obstacles a growing number of Syrian families who had intended to reunite in Germany now remain separated for two to three years or even longer. Others were even forced apart post-arrival. This paper examines the impacts of shifting policies in relation to family reunification and internal dispersal on the experiences of female Syrian asylum seekers in Germany. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Germany in 2012–2016. Through the analysis of women’s accounts and of policy measures it sheds light on how female Syrian asylum seekers and recognized refugees have coped with diverse challenges before arriving during long-lasting separations after subsequent reunifications in Germany or after arriving alone.
A Tale of Multiple Disconnects
This study addresses the percolation and domestication of the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Transforming our World” in Germany with a view to understanding its impact on domestic gender equality policies. Concentrating on federal-level policymaking the main finding of the study is that the 2030 Agenda and SDG 5 have as of yet not had a discernible impact on domestic gender equality struggles. This is surprising since the 2030 Agenda offers a holistic conception of sustainability and thus has the “value added” advantage of merging and transcending the rather disjointed gender social justice and ecological sustainability policy strands. Based on 28 interviews with government officials CSO representatives and researchers the study observes multiple disconnects. There is a lack of cohesion and consistency across ministries and civil society actors resulting in a horizontal disconnect. There is a vertical disconnect between the 2030 Agenda as a multilateral agreement and its domestication. Perhaps because the 2030 Agenda is a soft-law tool it has limited clout for transformative change; it is moreover seen to be weaker on gender equality commitments than other pertinent international agreements. An obvious conclusion of the study is to strengthen institutional linkages. The vision of gender equality needs to resonate with all actors supporting sustainable development. This could support women’s struggles in addressing Germany’s structural gender disadvantages.