Critical Reflection # 2

Women and Poverty

The most interesting issue I learned this week is that poverty is one of the determinants to fight against for economic development especially in the developing countries. The poverty calculation also varies, some indicate only based on household income, and while another index measures multidimensional, it includes health, education and standards of living. However, all measurements are based on family household and fail to notice women and men individually. In Mexico and Central America also focused upon to indicate for poverty measure are household income and their adequacy of consumption. Coates, Anna (2010). Even though the indicator is based on household level, Chant, Slyvia (2010) claimed that “women are more often affected and jeopardized by poverty” because women are lack of power of self-control and making decision power so it is more likely to get recover if women are fallen into poverty. 

The new understanding of women and poverty is an important linkage with development of child in different ways because women take more responsible to manage and consider daily consumption than men. In this case, if women are poor, their children will be definitely affected on malnutrition.  Lister, Ruth (2010) found out that women sacrifice their own needs in order to protect other family member’s essential needs, for instance, women eat after feeding their children and only eat leftover food. Another factor is women poverty may reduce school enrolment rate. If women do not have regular income, children drop out from schools rate is more likely to higher. The unemployment rate in Burma is nearly 40% therefore children drop out from school also high in Burma. Furthermore, one of the welfare program that the World Bank operate in the Philippines is called conditional cash transfer program, it improve children education, nutrition and health in the household. Because of women are the main responsibilities for the everyday care of children, the project let women to manage all financial matter.

The understanding of women and poverty help me to find out more why women are poorer than men. This is firstly because women have to do unpaid work and time which is traditional norms and practice for many decades. While men work in the labour force, women are staying in the house and do all household reproductive work which are not counted and valued as productive work. Moreover women take responsible for caring work, it includes child care, elderly care and sick people care both in the family and in the community. Secondly, women are traditionally discriminate and bias in the labor force participation that women are forced to be in the domestic sphere. Furthermore, the governments do not protect the rights of women in the paid labour. Nowadays, women have a chance to engage more in the paid labour however the wages are still different between men and women. Therefore, Pope Francis recently stated that “its ‘pure scandal’ that women earn less than men for the same work”.

This knowledge of women and poverty will be helpful not only for this study program but also for my further work with my community to make strategic plan economics development for Burma. Especially, with this understanding I will initiate community based organizations who are currently working their effort on community development to collect gender disaggregated data. This data will be useful when making strategic plan for poverty reduction in Burma because men and women needs, performs are not the same so it is better to introduce different program between men and women. On the other hand, I can personally involve in the empowerment of women from Burma because women empowerment is “ability to exercise choice” which include decision making ( Kabeer, Naila), which is really important for women to build up their lives better-off and also have more confident to fight gender inequality in the society.

  

References

Chant, Sylvia (2010) ‘Towards a (re)conceptualization of the 'feminization of poverty': reflections on gender-differentiated poverty from The Gambia, Philippines and Costa Rica”, The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty

Lister, Ruth  ( 2010) :  Linking women's and children's poverty

Kabeer,Naila Resources, Agency, Achievement: Reflections on the Measurement of women’s empowerment

Momsen, Janet ( 2010)  Gender, households and poverty in the Caribbean: shadows over

islands in the sun

Martin Hayden and Richard Martin, Recovery of the education system in Myanmar. Journal of International comparative and education 2012, volume 2, issue 2.