Women and Work

Women and Economic Systems

The role of women within economic systems is influenced by:

Gender Role Ideology

Subsistence Strategies and Techniques

Global Economic Factors

Gender Role Ideology

Beliefs about the appropriateness of behaviors and roles for males and for females.

Deeply embedded in consciousness

Considered the “natural” way in which things should be done

Well integrated within all cultural systems, so that disruption of roles interferes with many aspects of daily life

Gender and Subsistence There are four general subsistence

strategies:

1. Hunting and Gathering

2. Pastoralism

3. Horticulture

4. Agriculture

Hunting and GatheringAll plants to all animals

Women provide about 80% of food in most H & G societies.

Men provide high status food (meat)

Egalitarian societies generally and by gender

Small groups (about 30 individuals)

Mobile

Generalized Reciprocity is the main distribution mode

No surplus accumulated

Pastoralism• Dependence on herd animals for subsistence

• Herds are owned by men (husbands and sons)

• Women are part of the labor force that care for baby animals and milk the herds + household and child work

• Women produce children who also become part of the labor force

• Usually patrilineal and patriarchial

• Men frequently have multiple wives

• Groups in the 100’s

• Generalized and balanced reciprocity are the major distribution modes

• Surplus resides in the living herd

Horticulture• Farming with only hand tools

• Various sexual division of labor patterns– Production of crops– Marketing of crops

• Monogamous or polygynous

• Villages or dispersed homesteads

• Reciprocity plus market system distribution

• Surplus production varies

Agriculture

• Farming with more than hand tools (plow, tractor, draught animals, terracing, irrigation)

• Males control land and property• Females do housework and produce children as labor

force • Monogamous or polygynous• Villages to cities• Market system form of distribution• Large surpluses produced

Globalization Factors

Exhaustion of land

War

Migration of men for wage labor

Result in men being absent or unable to work in traditional roles/jobs

Women in Farming

• Rural women in particular are responsible for half of the world's food production and produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries.

• In Southeast Asia, women provide up to 90 percent of the labor for rice cultivation.

• Women in rural Africa produce, process, and store up to 80 percent of the food.

• In sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs both for household consumption and for sale.

• Fifty percent of Third World women plough and level land• Seventy percent Third World women are involved in planting, tilling

and harvesting.• Women perform from 25 to 45 percent of agricultural field tasks in

Colombia and Peru.• Women constitute 53 percent of the agricultural labor in Egypt.

Blocks to Women’s Participation in Agricultural Policy and Decision-Making

• Farmers are still generally perceived as 'male' by policy-makers, development planners and agricultural service deliverers.

 • Legal systems do not recognize women as having

equal property rights as men.

• Most development monies and grants go to men.

Consequences of Blocks

• Access to land - Inheritance and land tenure laws limit women's ownership and use of land.

• Access to credit - Short- and long-term credit is needed to pay for inputs and hired labor. Women lack property and land rights, and therefore collateral.

• Access to agricultural inputs - Improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are a vital means of enhancing production. Women usually lack access to cash or to government subsidized programs.

Consequences of Blocks (2)

• Access to extension and training - Agricultural extension programs inform farmers about new technologies and plant varieties. Few extension services are targeted at rural women, few of the world's extension agents are women and most of the extension services focus on commercial rather than subsistence crops - the primary concern of women.

• Access to education - Prevailing attitudes about women's social, political and cultural rights severely limit girls' access to education throughout the developing world.

• Access to technology - Labor-saving technologies are important means of increasing production and improving people's quality of life. But the needs and priorities of women are rarely considered in the research and development of agricultural technology.

Consequences of Blocks (3)

• Access to rural organizations - Agricultural cooperatives and farmers' organizations help members obtain resources and represent members' interests before government. But a common prerequisite for membership of these rural organizations is, very often, 'head of household status' or land ownership, which applies solely to men.

• Access to services - Services such as transport and market facilities help farmers expand their income-generating activities. Although women have a role in the trading of goods and the food they produce, illiteracy and lack of legal rights prevent them from joining formal service institutions.

Examples of Some Consequences of Blocks

• Fewer than 10 percent of women farmers in India, Nepal and Thailand own land.

• An analysis of credit schemes in five African countries found that women received less than 10 percent of the credit awarded to male smallholders.

• Only 15 percent of the world's agricultural extension agents are women.

Development Paradox

• Men have historically received most or all developmental aid and funding, and it has been expected that the effects of their improved economic status will spread to women and children.

• The evidence shows that development aid and funding given to women has a significantly larger and more immediate impact on the lives of men, women and children.

Women and Entrepreneurship

• Small and medium-scale enterprises are one important form of economic development

• Women are increasingly taking part in this economic segment in developing nations

• Obstacles to women’s participation include:– Lack of managerial, technical or marketing skills

– Lack of access to appropriate technology for safe production of goods and services

– Lack of access to loans and credit with which to begin a business

Pottery in BoliviaTraditionally

Men make the pots

Women provide support services

Collecting clay and firewood with donkeys

Decorating the pots with glazes made from car batteries

Taking them to market

Development efforts included

Introducing gas kilns

Trucks replaced donkeys for hauling clay

Machine substituted for manual crushing of clay

Alternative glazes were introduced

Introducing new designs

Training women in marketing skills

Pottery in Bolivia (2)What did NOT change:

Men continued to be the ones who made the pots.

(Gender Ideology)

Women continued to do the support work and marketing

What DID change:

Women’s work was made easier and more efficient

The variety of styles and designs of the pottery increased

Women opened a retail shop in a neighboring city to sell their wares

Water, gas and electricity that were installed to improve the business also improved households

The population of this village has remained stable, while that of neighboring villages has declined through heavy

migration.

Textiles in KenyaTraditionally

Women sewed from home in the informal economic sector

Development efforts included

Training for technical and business skills

Designing garments

Marketing

Accounting

Sewing machine maintenance and repair

Open up access to credit for beginning a new business

Providing new tools and machinery necessary to produce competitive garments in terms of quality and price

Helping to open up export markets for the products

Shea Butter in GuineaTraditionally

Women alone produce beurre (Shea Butter)

Cultivate the plants

Collect the nuts

Hand crush the nuts with a stone, removing the shells

Frequently takes up to 10 hours a day to produce

Used as a subsistence food item

Development efforts included

Introducing hand-operated crushing/pressing machines

Provided credit opportunities

Provided literacy training

Provided accounting and administrative skills for dealing with banks, etc.

Reduced production time from 10 to 2 hours

Allows a surplus production that can be used for income in addition to subsistence.

Global Economic FactorsEconomically motivated migration

Leaves women behind to support families OR

Causes women to be away from their families for years at a time.

Global Trade Openness

Puts women in competition with industries in other countries

Warfare

Leaves women behind to support their families