|
GENDER ISSUES IN COOPERATIVES:
|
Gender concept -- Gender roles -- Practical and strategic gender needs -- Gender and development approach --
Gender analysis and planning -- General information on the status of women
The term gender refers to the socially-determined and culturally- specific differences between women and men as opposed to the biologically determined differences. The concept 'gender' is an important analytical tool in the planning, management, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes or cooperative projects as requires that women are considered in relation to men in a socio-cultural setting and not as an isolated group.
One refers to gender issues as opposed to women's issues because the issues concern both men and women. In regard to cooperatives it is important to analyse the role and position of men and women in their socio-economic environment in order to identify and address their different needs, to be able to develop their strengths and potentials and to ensure an equitable distribution of the benefits of cooperative development.
Gender roles are roles that are played by both women and men which are not determined by biological factors, but by the socio- economic and cultural environment or situation. For example, in parts of Africa and Latin America unskilled construction work is regarded as ´men's work´, whereas in India it is regarded as ´women's work.´
Women's productive and reproductive roles: Women are in most societies responsible for all domestic activities such as housework, food preparation and child rearing (reproductive role), in addition to their involvement in economic/income- generating activities (productive role).
This "double day" results in general in a heavier workload on women than on men (although this also depends on social class, age or ethnic group). In the poorer rural and urban areas, for example, women are often engaged in activities such as food crop production, assisting in family cash crop production (planting and weeding), market gardening, informal commerce, small-scale manufacturing etc. in addition to their household and family care responsibilities.
It is important to distinguish between the productive and reproductive roles when planning women's programmes as women spend a lot of time on reproductive activities and productive work. It should also be noted that women's work in both areas is often not remunerated and therefore does not appear in official (or national) economic statistics.
Because women and men have different gender roles, they also have different needs. Practical gender needs are those which address women's and men's immediate needs in relation to their roles in society. Strategic gender needs on the other hand, refer to the need to change the existing gender roles and to address equality issues. Although cooperative organizations (and governments) have policies of equity and equal opportunity and express the need to improve the status of women, special intervention is often required to correct the existing imbalances in society and to improve the status of women. A few examples of activities which address strategic gender needs are:
The gender approach views gender relations and the inequitable development process as the essential problem areas to be tackled. (It differs from the Women in Development (WID) approach which regarded women as the problem area and focused primarily on women's integration in the development process).
The gender approach seeks to empower disadvantaged and vulnerable groups - including women - and to transform unequal relations. The ultimate goal is to attain equitable and sustainable development with both men and women involved in decision-making processes.
| GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT | |
| The focus | is on the relations between men and women. |
| The problem | is the unequal relations of power between
men and women on the same socio-economic
level. This results in the unequal distribution of the benefits of development and hinders women's full participation in the development process. |
| The solution | is to empower the disadvantaged and women, and to transform unequal relations. |
| The aim | is to attain equitable and sustainable
development with both men and women in decision-making and leadership positions. |
| How? |
- enhance the democratization and de-officialization process of cooperatives.
- identify the (practical and strategic) needs and interests of men and women
which can improve their condition.
- enhance women's access resources including credit and education and
training facilities etc.
- involve women in decision-making.
- enhance women's access to leadership positions e.g through quotas or
"affirmative action", which is action taken to correct the already
existing imbalances. |
The aim of gender analysis is to analyse the position of men and women in a society or community and to identify the specific needs and strengths of each. This method is applied in the planning, management, implementation and evaluation of programmes in order to ensure the equal participation of men and women according to their identified needs, special skills and potentials. Cooperative policies and programmes can also be adapted to the needs of the specific target group by applying this method.
In gender analysis one must first identify the gender differences in social and economic production systems which will be affected by the cooperative activities. And secondly, analyse the implications of these gender differences for the design and implementation of the activities.
During the UN Decade for Women (1975-85) focus was directed on women's issues and a favourable legal and institutional climate for women was created. Many governments established special offices for women's issues, and efforts were made to increase women's representation in decision-making and to involve them as key components in development policies. Since then progress has been made in the promotion of equality issues in most countries of the world but there is still often a discrepancy between principle and practice, and many policy approaches still treat women as a marginal minority group.
What is the status of women today? There have been some improvements but generally the situation appears to have deteriorated. On the one hand, there are more literate women today than ten years ago and more women can be found in higher positions in political and economic spheres of life. But, on the other hand, according to a UN report many women are poorer than ever before. The number of women living in poverty nearly doubled over the past 20 years, and women today constitute at least 60 per cent of the world's 1 billion poor.1/ Studies also suggest that a deterioration of the living conditions of women from low- income sectors often results in violence, a breakdown of the family and mental health disorders. A situation that affects not only the family but the whole of society.
Undoubtedly the most disconcerting development is the widening gap between the North and South, the rich and poor and the rural and urban populations. The conditions of the rural poor in developing countries, have deteriorated drastically over the past years, often due to structural adjustment programmes which have increased the hardship of rural women in particular. Rural women are the first to suffer from reductions in public sector services such as education and health.
In the field of education there are, however, signs of a positive trend worldwide. There has been a decline in illiteracy amongst women from 46.6 per cent in 1970 to 33.6 per cent in 1990, and this trend looks like continuing according to UNESCO.2/ But, nevertheless, girls and women still represent two thirds of the world's illiterates. With regard to rural women, their access to education and training facilities is much more limited than for women in the urban areas.
Direct gender discrimination still exists and discriminatory attitudes and practices are widespread. In many parts of the world, girl children often deliberately receive less education, less food and less health care than boys. According to the WHO, one sixth of all female infant deaths in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were, for example, due to neglect and discrimination.
Illiteracy rates are falling for young women but are still much higher for young women than for men. Over 40 per cent of young women are still illiterate in Africa and Southern and Western Asia.
In the economic sphere inequality is also prevalent. Women today represent 34 per cent of the workers in the formal labour sector worldwide and, although the wage gap between men and women has decreased, women still earn 30-40 per cent less than men for comparable work and more women are still found in traditionally low-paid jobs.3/ Most women, however, work in the informal sector. The number of women in this insecure sector, unprotected by unions or employment legislation, far exceeds that of men.
Another issue that affects women throughout the world is their heavy workload. Due to the double burden of productive/economic activities and family responsibilities, women work much longer hours than men and do not have much time to spare for other activities (such as participating in meetings or community and training activities). In addition to this much of the work carried out by women is unrecorded and undervalued, or not valued at all since it often does not appear in a country's official statistics. Furthermore, when national surveys are carried out in the agricultural sector, they invariably underestimate the agricultural work carried out by women. For example, the national figures in Egypt showed that 3.6 per cent of the women were involved in agricultural work whereas a local study showed that between 35-50 per cent women were involved. In Peru the national figures estimated 2.6 per cent women involvement and the local figures estimated 86 per cent (FAO).
For women in poorer rural and urban areas in developing countries the work load is particularly heavy. Women are often engaged in activities such as subsistence crop production, family cash crop production (planting and weeding and harvesting), market gardening, or informal commerce, small-scale manufacturing etc., in addition to their household and family care responsibilities. (See transparency 5A on Division of Labour in the Agriculture).
Women in many parts of the world are regarded as successful traders and entrepreneurs. However small-scale enterprises are difficult to establish and many women are hampered by lack of access to credit and other resources such as training and education. Traditional practices and customs can also often impede women's entrepreneurial aptitudes and potentials.
Poverty, low status and lack of participation and integration into the mainstream have resulted in the marginalization of women. To integrate women into the mainstream is not an easy task, but the first step is to change attitudes and overcome the existing resistance to the change in women's roles. Society must recognize and value women's productive and reproductive roles and their contribution to sustainable economic development.
There has been a growing awareness among governments, policy and decision-makers in recent years that women are indeed important, although under-utilized, contributors to economic growth and development rather than just passive beneficiaries. There is also a growing understanding of the fact that whatever happens to women will have significant consequences for the well-being of future generations in all parts of the world.
2/ UNESCO, Compendium of Statistics on Illiteracy, 1990 edition. No. 31 (Paris, 1990).
Posted: 2 May 2001