The gender gap in the ownership and control of property is the single most critical contributor to the gender gap in economic well-being, social status, and empowerment'

Résumé du document

Before the 1970s, women were practically invisible: they were relegated to the family and the domestic world. However since the middle of this same decade, the gender issue has become an increasingly theme within the development concern. Globalization not only affects men but women as well, although in a different way. The United Nation Decade for Women (1976-1985) turned the spotlight on women's lives and the discriminations they were victim to.

The "Women in Development" (WID) domain emerged as part of this new phenomenon, followed by other approaches. In a general way, gender issues are dealt with by feminists. Different trends can be distinguished within the feminist movement: some seek to deal with women's issues with development whereas others see development as damaging to women's agenda. Thus, feminists have been divided into four major trends: liberal feminists, cultural feminists, socialist feminists and black and Third World feminists.

Gender not only refers to women or men but to the socially defined roles of each sex. So gender and sex must be differentiated: sex is connected with biology whereas gender is seen as a social construction. According to Michael Kevane: "Gender refers to the constellation of rules and identities that prescribe and proscribe behavior for persons, in their social roles as men and women. These rules and identities may be deliberate or unintended, explicit or implicit, conscious or unconscious" .

It is important to emphasize that gender roles vary from region to region: women and men will play different roles in accordance with their tradition, their history and their culture. Furthermore, cultures evolve, which means that gender evolves too: "the roles played by men and women are not only determined by culture but by socio-political and economic factors" .

This essay will analyze the following assertion: "the gender difference in the ownership and control of property is the single most critical contributor to the gender gap in economic well-being, social status, and empowerment". First and foremost, I will examine the importance of gender issue as a development concern. Then, I will study women in the context of economic well-being, their social status and their empowerment. Afterwards, I will explain the gender gap in the ownership and control of property and why there is a "feminization of poverty". Finally, I will conclude with some critics of female assertion.

Tags: women empowerment, gender discrimination, ownership rights

Extraits

[...] It is important to emphasise the gender inequalities which stand behind poverty. The recognition by governments that there is a gender dimension to poverty has been an important achievement of the Beijing Conference in 1995. Among many other factors, the feminisation of poverty may be caused by changes in family composition or family organisation, by inequalities in the access to public services (for example education and health), by inequalities in social protection, by inequalities in the labour market, and by legal, paralegal and cultural constraints in public life (for example property rights, justice and political life). [...]

[...] Ensuring the access of women to land is fundamental to improving their economic welfare and increasing their access to other resources such as credit. Indeed, property ownership can provide a form of economic and social security. For instance, Bina Agarwal emphasises in her article entitled Women's Land Rights and the Trap of Neo- Conservatism: A Response to Jackson that a woman who owns properties such as land or a house is less subject to domestic violence than a woman who owns nothing[14]. [...]

[...] Positions of responsibility are generally exercised by men: in the households, they take the most important decisions, without consulting their wives; within the country, decisions are most of the time taken by men. Of the 192 countries of the world, only 12 had a female head of state. This shows the perceptions of people concerning the capacity of women to take important decisions. According to the World Bank, “where the influence of women in public life is greater, the level of corruption is lower”[12]. [...]

[...] The empowerment of women requires changes in the division of labour and transformations of the society. Women and the economic well-being It is generally recognized that women have to carry double burden of unpaid work in the home, as well as paid work producing goods and services”[5]. It must be understood by “work in the home” the housework, childcare and the production of food (which can be linked to cooking). According to the International Labour Organization, “women spend twice as much time as men on unpaid work”[6]. [...]

[...] What is more is that empowering women seems to be linked with lower fertility rates, which generate more rapid economic growth. This is linked to education and what I tried to explain above. Empower women is a key issue because an empowered woman is an enfranchised citizen and she is likely to oppose dictatorial regimes and to threaten her husband and father. Gender gap in the ownership and control of property While women are more numerous than men and while they work harder than them, they possess roughly of the land in the world. [...]