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.
