Posted Date: May 20, 1998
Empowering Women: The Key to Achieving Rights & Results
Empowering Women:
The Key to Achieving Rights & Results
The importance of women’s contributions to the development process is more evident than ever before. Women are the sole breadwinners for an increasing number of households. They hold key positions as community organizers and are forging their roles in emerging democracies. They account for a majority of the developing world’s micro-entrepreneurs and provide most of the labor in the agriculture sector, which remains the backbone of virtually all developing economies. The contributions women make to economic productivity, food security, environmental conservation, and family health and nutrition are indispensable to meeting development objectives. (1)
At the same time, the status of women is appalling in much of the world. Although many international agreements recognize women’s human rights, pervasive gender bias means women are much more likely than men to be malnourished, poor and illiterate and to have less access than men to medical care, property ownership, employment and political power. (2) Gender bias exacts an enormous toll on women’s lives, health and potential. It also prevents achievement of sustainable development and population stabilization. Yet experience shows that recognizing and acting upon women’s central roles in the development process is a decisive element in achieving improvements in the economic and social well-being of developing countries.
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Development Works: Facts and Figures
USAID gives priority to girls’ and women’s education, not only to advance equal opportunity, but also because of the positive impact their education has on a wide range of development results from improved family health to increased economic production and lowered fertility rates. (1)
Encouraging the entrepreneurship and self-employment of women is proving to be a successful strategy for alleviating poverty. Nearly half of loan recipients from the Grameen Bank - a financial institution in Bangladesh that provides credit primarily to women - are no longer living in poverty. Millions of poor women across the developing world are benefiting from microenterprise. (3)
Women tend to contribute a larger share of their income to family welfare than do men. One study in Mexico found that women contributed 100 percent of their earnings to the family budget, while men contributed at 75 percent, and often less. (4)
Advancing women helps future generations. In Colombia, Ghana and Thailand, among other developing countries, children of educated mothers perform better on preschool tests. Studies also show that mother’s schooling is often a significant determinant of children’s schooling, (5)
Since household food is primarily the responsibility of women in most African countries, raising their productivity in agriculture contributes to better family nutrition and increased income. In addition, evidence suggest that given the same land, input, education and technology, females can equal or surpass males in agricultural output. A study in Kenya showed that female farmers would outproduce men by 6.6 percent in maize yields per hectare. (6)
USAID over the past two decades helped women live longer lives, have fewer children and more schooling, and have greater access to modern contraception and economic opportunities. In addition, USAID targeted toward advancing women promotes equity and democracy, and it should help substantially improve the human rights record worldwide. (7)
Reality Check
Myth: We have no right to interfere in the social structures of other nations. Besides, women’s social roles are the result of centuries of culture and religion.
Reality: Gender roles differ in every society and change constantly; they are not immutable. As in any power relationship, human rights much be observed. Slavery and torture are also centuries-old practices, now condemned at an international level. (2)
Success Stories
The strategic objective of the USAID-funded Global Climate Change Program is to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, which accounts for as much as 85 percent of Brazil’s carbon monoxide emission. Program organizers realize that alternative forest uses and management practices rely heavily on women’s knowledge, skills and labor - particularly with regard to their traditional role as collectors, processors and marketers of non-timber products. In order to ensure maximum results, a major program activity is focused on working with women to identify marketing opportunities for these forest products - such as tropical fruits and pulps, gums, resins, nuts, spices and wicker. (1)
The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), with support from USAID, the World Bank, and the United Nations Population Fund, formed a network of women leaders from 30 developing countries to participate in the recent U.N. International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. Network members successfully advocated for expansion of policies that have enabled millions of women to improve their lives, and those of their families and communities. The landmark conference concluded by approving a 20-year program of action that sets up specific steps to provide universal access to a full range of family planning methods and related reproductive health services, reduce maternal and child mortality, and empower women through education, health care and expanded economic options. CEDPA’s new USAID-supported project in Egypt, to improve the status of girls and young women through education and development, is among the first projects to implement the ICPD recommendations. (8)
USAID has helped increase the demand for girls’ and women’s education in Mali through creative social marketing. The multi-faceted program included a nationwide radio and television campaign broadcast in seven languages to demonstrate the benefits of education for Malian women. It helped to change educators’ and administrators’ perceptions of girls’ abilities by incorporating gender modules and activities into its basic education teacher training program. The program also worked to incorporate stories of girls and women in the design of new textbooks and curriculum materials. (1)
The Bottom Line
US-supported efforts to achieve dynamic, long-term growth will only succeed if our resources empower women as well as men to seize opportunities and make a difference for themselves, their families and their communities. Traditional market-oriented development policies that fail to recognize women’s role in society are believed to have contributed to increased poverty, high rates of population growth, poor child health and environmental degradation. Such policies, by often overlooking or even undermining women’s well-being and participation in their communities, have not only hurt women but also hindered the achievement of sustainable development and human rights goals.
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