Transcript 333WomenandWork

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.
2.
3.
4.
Hunting and Gathering
Pastoralism
Horticulture
Agriculture
Hunting and Gathering
All 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
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•
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•
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 Bolivia
Traditionally
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 Kenya
Traditionally
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 Guinea
Traditionally
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 Factors
Economically 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