poverty, gender economics, feminization, causes of feminisation of poverty

1. GENDER ECONOMICS
DEPT OF ECONOMICS
BY
JOSNA ANTONY
I SEM MSW

2. A phenomenon in which women
represent a disproportionate
percentage of the world’s poor.

3. What is feminisation???
Biology
hormonally induced development of female
sexual characteristics
Activity
a sexual or lifestyle practice where a person
assumes a female role
Sociology
a perceived societal shift of gender roles
towards the characteristically female

4. Contd…
• Feminisation of agriculture
• Feminisation of face
• Feminisation of language
• Feminisation of migration
• Feminisation of poverty
• Feminisation of voice
• Feminisation of workspace

5. “ The burden of poverty borne by women,
especially in developing countries”.
- United Nations
Development fund for Women (UNIFEM)
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and
the Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN)

6. Causes of Feminisation of Poverty
• Lack of income
• Deprivation of capabilities
• Gender biases present in both societies and
Govts.
• Poverty in choices and opportunities such as
ability to lead a healthy, long and creative life
• Poverty in basic rights like freedom, respect and
dignity.
• Etc…..

7. Diana Pearce (1978)
The term Feminisation of Poverty first coined
by Diana Pearce in 1978.
 according to Pearce’s research, two third of
the poor who were over age 16 were women

9. 1) Disparate Income
• Principle reason - lack of income
• Prevents women from attaining resources and
converting their monetary resources into socio
economic status
• Deprives women of their basic needs &
capabilities
• Since women disproportionately earn less than
men, they are deprived of basic education and
health care – eventually leads to a cycle to
debilitate women's ability to earn higher income.

10. Contd….
• Deprivation passes from one generation to
other – leads to a perpetual feminisation of
poverty
• Main reason of the cycle of poverty among
women- lower income- due to care for their
offspring
• Persistent gender discrimination among
labour- never allow the majority of women
quality work

11. 2) Single mother households
• Households with female headships
-due to men may be 1) migrant workers
2) illness
3) death
• At highest risk of poverty due to lack of income and resources
• Single mothers are poorest women in the society and their children
tend to be disadvantaged in comparison to their peers
• Female headed households only have two third of the income of
male headed households
• Lack critical resources in life – worsens their poverty
• Lack of essential life needs comparing to men

12. 3) Social and Cultural exclusions
• Prevents women from attaining formal
employment
• Never allow women to have much labour
productivity, outside the home as well as an
economic bargaining position with in the
household
• Social inequality deprives women’s capabilities
particularly employment- leads to women having
poverty
• Increase in gender segregation and gender wage
gap increases women’s susceptibility to poverty

13. Measures of poverty
• An important aspect of analysing the feminization of
poverty is understanding how it is measured.
• Income is the only base to measure women’s poverty
• Have to examine this issue from a multidimensional basis-
there must be an accurate research
• Three indexes often examined are
- Gender Related Development Index
- Gender Empowerment Index
- Human poverty Index
• First two are gendered indices- gather data on women to
evaluate gender inequalities and to understand disparities
in gender opportunities and choices

14. Contd…
• HPI focuses on deprivation measures rather than income measures
• HPI is multidimensional and non income based approach.
• Consider four dimensions:
-survival
-knowledge
-decent standard of living
-social participation
• HPI fails to examine certain deprivations such as lack of property
ownership and credit – essential for bargaining position I the household
for women
• GDI adjusts the Human Development Index in three ways
- Shows longevity, or life-expectancy of females and males
-Education or knowledge
-Decent standard of living

15. Multidimensional Approach
• Capability approach: studies different aspects
of poverty that can enable people, especially
women, to become agents of their own lives.
• Address the feminisation of poverty should
focus on the opportunities and personal
choices available to the women

16. 1) Health
• Gender inequality in society prevents women
from utilizing care services and put them at a
risk of poor health
• Women in poverty are more vulnerable to
sexual violence and risk of HIV/AIDS
• Poor health – key factor in household poverty
• Govt. should increase health services to
mitigate the feminisation in poverty

17. 2)Education
• Gender discrimination and social hierarchy- social
level
• For the education of male siblings- household
level
• An important aspect of the capabilities is:
- freedom to make informed choices
- have opportunities to achieve goals
- basic requirement to actively use the resources
and
- information of basic education

18. Contd….
• Enables to:
- reduce the household poverty
- increases children’s chance to get education
- enhances maternal health
- increase the freedom of movement
• Women who achieve greater education are
more likely to worry about their children's
survival, nutrition, and school attendance

19. 3) Decision-making power
• Is central to the bargaining position of women
within the household
• About women’s health, their ability to go and visit
friends or families and household expenditure-
decision made by men
• Gender discrimination within the household
rooted in patriarchal biases against social status
of women
• Major determinants of house hold bargaining
power- control of income and assets, age and
access to and level of education

20. 4) Employment
• Gives financial independence
• Higher security to established legal position
• Real world experiences
• Deeply importance for sheltered or shy
women
• Gives better bargaining position

21. Contd…
• Formal and informal employment
• Formal - govt. regulated, insured wages and
rights
• Informal - taken place in small, unregistered
enterprises
- large source of employment for
women

22. Contd…
• Burden of care worker – women work longer
and harder than men
• Having children

23. Racialization
• Minority women in the United States,
specifically Black and Latin women are twice
as likely as white women to be living in
poverty.
• Family structure
• Education
• Access to higher paying jobs

24. Comparison of need of money for men
and women
• Shoulder the fiscal and physical responsibility for
their children
• Unique healthcare problems/access problems
related to reproduction increasing both their
healthcare costs and risks
• Tend to be charged more than men for similar
products and services
• Females tend to live five years longer; i.e. their
funds need to last five years longer than men's
funds.