gender perspectives entrepreneurships2s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/ bear the brunt of poverty caused by economic downturns and negative effects on employment opportunities

Regional Training Workshop on Entrepreneurship and e-Business Development for Women Cooperatives 27-30 November 2007 Bali, Indonesia

Gender Perspectives on Women’s Empowerment and the Promotion

of Women’s Entrepreneurship

Marie SicatGender and Development SectionEmerging Social Issues Division

UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific


Overview

� Regional overview of situation of rural women and women’s work

� Women’s empowerment and status of women’s entrepreneurship in the region

� Promotion of gender equality and ESCAP


Regional overview of situation of rural women and women’s work


Regional overview: women’s work and women in the economy

• Women in region have been strongly impacted by changing economicenvironment.

• Rapid economic growth in region and growing recognition of women’s productive contribution to dramatic growth ie. export processing and manufacturing in 1990s

• Opportunities for women, but also some adverse affects on women ie. Women particularly vulnerable to economic shocks and uncertainties in the workplace, subject to discriminatory wage practices, low skill jobs, erosion of women’s rights in labour markets.

• Approximately 2/3 of all women work in some area of economic activity.

• Remote technologies enabling women to take on home-based work and subcontracting while caring for families

• Large numbers of women working in informal sector, need to ensure not precarious working conditions.


Rural women in the region and feminization of poverty

� Asia Pacific region is home to over 60% of the world’s population with approximately 3.8 billion people in the region. Majority live in rural areas.

� In most developing countries, rural population exceeds 50% of total population.

� Despite growth of many economies in region and considerable progress to alleviate poverty, region is still home to 768 million poor who try to live on less than one US dollar a day, particularly in rural areas.

� Majority of the absolute poor are women. Feminization of poverty remains.


Economic activity rate women1995 and 2002


Economic activity rate men 1995 and 2002


Share of rural and urban populations living below the national poverty line (%)

Selected ESCAP countries

Rural Urban Rural Urban% % % %

China 1996 7.9 <2.0 1998 4.6 <2.0Southeast AsiaCambodia 1997 40.1 21.1 1999 40.1 13.9Lao PDR 1993 48.7 33.1 1997-1998 41.0 26.9Philippines 1994 53.1 28.0 1997 50.7 21.5Thailand 1992 15.5 10.2Vietnam 1998 45.5 9.2 2002 35.6 6.6

Bangladesh 1995-1996 55.2 29.4 2000 53.0 36.6India 1993-1994 37.3 32.4 1999-2000 30.2 24.7Nepal 1995-1996 44.0 23.0Pakistan 1993 33.4 17.2 1998-1999 35.9 24.2Sri Lanka 1990-1991 22.0 15.0 1995-1996 27.0 15.0

Kyrgyzstan 2000 56.4 43.9 2001 51.0 41.2Kazakhstan 1996 39.0 30.0Uzbekistan 2000 30.5 22.5

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators 2005

East and Northeast Asia

South and Southwest Asia

Central Asia

Most recent yearYear

Share of population below national poverty line

Share of population below national poverty line


Employment informal sectorSelected UNESCAP countries

Most recent year available for period 1992 to 2002



Gendered effects of poverty and women’s traditional roles in the household

� Women bear the brunt of poverty caused by economic downturns andnegative effects on employment opportunities.

� Women traditionally bear the burden caused by reduced household income and must find ways to compensate and make ends meet for household survival ie. find alternative sources of income, find substitute health care or schooling when public funds are cut.

� Feminization of poverty exacerbated by entrenched gender discriminations and societal norms and practices which place women in a subordinated status.

� Women in poor households tend to have no or reduced access to productive resources and assets such as credit and land rights.


Value of women’s work

� Increasing recognition of the value of women’s productive contributions to economic growth in terms of women’s labourin the formal economy.

� But much of women’s unpaid, non-renumerated household work remains invisible and unvalued

� Growing analytical work to find ways to give it value ie. by quantifying its contribution to the economy.


Women’s productive and reproductive work


Women’s Economic Empowerment and Women’s Entrepreneurship


Women’s Economic Empowerment

Women’s economic empowerment is one essential element in achieving gender equality.

Examples of women’s economic empowerment:� women’s ability to earn an independent income� to find employment outside the home� to have ownership rights� to be literate and educated participants in decisions

within and outside the family.


Promotion of women’s entrepreneurship in region

� Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises recognized as crucial tool in promoting empowerment of women, gender equality and socioeconomic development.

� Identified as engine of growth and drivers of innovation and economic dynamism by many governments.

� General types of women entrepreneurs:� Subsistence entrepreneurs: Women in low income/poor

households are driven by concern about basic needs of the family and are seeking to generate supplementary household income.

� Growth entrepreneurs (modern, careerist)� Women’s microenterprises and small subsistence businesses

play a crucial role in economy as well as in ensuring survival of poor households.


Data on entrepreneurship in region

� According to Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2006, SMEs account for more than 60 percent of formal sector employment in most developing countries in region.

� In Thailand, more than 86% of labour force employed by SMEs.

� In Republic of Korea and Vietnam, more than 70 % employed by SMEs.


Women’s entrepreneurship in region

� Scarcity of sex-disaggregated statistics on entrepreneurship which making mapping of women’s entrepreneurship challenging.

� Women tend to have greater presence in informal economy, less represented in formal registered SMEs, which make it more difficult to measure

� Snapshots from small scale surveys:- China: majority of Chinese women work in collective enterprises, most of which are SMEs.- Philippines: women make up more than half of the self-employed individuals working in manufacturing and trade and up to 70% of those working in social/community or personal services- Japan: 4 out of 5 small business owners are women- Vietnam: 4 out of 5 restaurants, cafes, hotels and wholesale retail shops and garment and leather manufacturing enterprises were owned and run by women (1997).


Women entrepreneurs and ICTs� ICTs transforming the way business is done.� Provide women with new business and employment

opportunities.� Large numbers of women in region working in areas

created by new technologies ie. teleworking, information technology enabled services (ITES)

� ICTs allow for flexibility so that women can run businesses from home and maintain family obligations

� ICTs make it possible for women small-business owners to make their businesses competitive in global market.

� Need to ensure that women entrepreneurs are not marginalized from the benefits that ICTs can offer.


Some of the benefits of promoting women’s entrepreneurship

� Contributes to adding force to women’s voice and agency through greater independence and empowerment.

� Women develop their talents, abilities, greater self-confidence and ability to create their lives.

� Increases women’s status in community� Women can serve as contributors and role models in

community� Women develop ability to stand up to abusive spouses.� Women’s economic empowerment through the

development of their entrepreneurial abilities, together with their social emancipation, can have far-reaching impacts on helping to achieve gender equality.


“Earning our own money allows us to do what we want with it. It also brings us ‘izzat’ (honour or respect) because the money “proves” our contribution. Otherwise, we work like animals, we are never given credit for our contribution and even our own men say that we do not work. When we have our own money we are no longer mohtaj (dependent to the point of being at the other person’s mercy. The word is often used for the physically disabled).”

A Pakistani entrepreneur as quoted by Nighat Said Khan, 1984


Promotion of Gender Equality and ESCAP’s work


Why gender equality?

� In addition to importance of gender equality as women’s basic human rights, promotion of gender equality is essential for development.

� Evidence that when women and men are relatively equal, economies tend to grow faster, the poor move more quickly out of poverty, and the well-being of men, women, and children is enhanced.

� “Measures of gender equality have significant, positive effects on growth and thus on poverty reduction” (World Bank)

� A recent study in the 2007 Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific calculated the cost of gender inequality to the region. It estimated that gender inequality cost the region $80 billion annually. "The region loses up to $47 billion annually because of restrictions of women's access to employment, and up to $30 billion because of gender gaps in education" ie. multi generational benefits


Developmental agendas for gender equality and women’s empowerment

� Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA)A guiding document which was a key outcome of the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, China. It sets out a comprehensive agenda for promoting gender equality and the advancement and empowerment of women. Governments which have signed and adopted the BPfA are obliged to look at the following 12 Critical Areas of Concern as priorities for action & to address barriers and constraints .

1. Women and poverty2. Women and education and training3. Women and health4. Violence against women5. Women and armed conflict6. Women and the economy7. Women in power and decision-making8. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women9. Human rights of women10. Women and media11. Women and environment12. The girl-child


Women Developmental Agendas (continued)

� Millennium Development Goals (MDG): Goal 3 on empowerment of women:The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight goals that 192 United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. They were officially established at the Millennium Summit in 2000. Goal 3 focuses on the empowerment of women. However, theachievement of gender equality is crucial for each of the eight MDGs.

� CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women):An international convention adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly and an important legal instrument with regard to women’s rights. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

� 2005 World Summit Outcome (in September 2005, was a follow-up to the UN 2000 Millennium Summit): World leaders reiterated that "progress for women is progress for all“.


ESCAP and women’s economic empowerment

UNESCAP works to:� assist Governments and the private sector in

formulating economic policies that recognize, support and promote women’s active participation in economic activities

� UNESCAP assists women entrepreneurs in developing their skills and capabilities.


Other ESCAP work in promoting gender equality

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“When women are fully empowered, all society benefits.”

UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro


Thank you!For further information:

Marie SicatGender and Development SectionEmerging Social Issues Division

UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia & the PacificTel: (66 2) 288 1237Fax: (66 2) 288 1018

[email protected]://www.unescap.org/esid/GAD/

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gender perspectives entrepreneurships2s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/ bear the brunt of poverty caused by economic downturns and negative effects on employment opportunities