 Monday, February 26, 2018

https://dailyasianage.com/news/110008/women-and-men---getting-to-equal

Women and men - Getting to equal

M S Siddiqui

Empowering women is a widely used political agenda of most of the nations. There are plenty of
studies that demonstrate how empowering women, be it in the market place, the office or the
household, increases overall efficiency, well-being and the quality of decision-making. Despite the
fact that great strides have been made in enabling women to achieve greater potential-in most parts
of the world their productive capacity and participation are still restricted, and they continue to be
discriminated against and lead diminished lives.

The history of empowerment of women is not very old. Only over the last 50 years, many reforms
have removed barriers to married women's legal capacity. For example, Indonesia granted married
women the right to open individual bank accounts in 1974. Other economies, such as Spain (in
1978), Switzerland (in 1984) and Paraguay (in 1991), removed legal requirements that husbands
grant their wives permission to work outside the home.

The World Bank Group revealed a report on Women, Business and the Law in 2016 with study on
seven indicators: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work,
building credit, going to court and protecting women from violence in 173 countries throughout the all
regions of the world. Unfortunately, Bangladesh was not included in the study.

The governments are working progressively to provide equality of opportunity for women, there are
still laws that differentiate between women and men in ways that affect women's economic
prospects: In the study of WB, 173 economies covered and out of those, 155 have at least one law
that differentiates between women and men. Total 46 of the economies covered in study have no
laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence. In 18 economies, husbands can legally
prevent their wives from working.

That lower legal gender equality is associated with fewer girls attending secondary school relative to
boys, fewer women working or running businesses and a wider gender wage gap. Over the past few
years, 65 economies carried out 94 reforms increasing women's economic opportunities. The
education of girls up to higher secondary is free in government schools and mandatory. In practice
the rate of drop out of girl up to higher secondary is very high. The law is not duly applied till date.

The region with the fewest reforms over time is South Asia. While economies in South Asia have
introduced quotas to increase women's representation and enacted legislation protecting women
from violence, they have shown little reform in the economic domains. Bangladesh employment
policy reserved 30% jobs for women and the People Reprehensive Act has mandatory provision for
30% quota in the leadership in order to maintain the registration with the election commission.

The parliament has 30% sits reserved for women elected with vote by members of Parliament. Other
countries also have reserved seat quotas for parliament range from 10% in Jordan to 33% in Kenya,
and candidate list quotas range from 20% in Mongolia to 50% in Tunisia. In South Asia, Afghanistan
and Pakistan also have reserved seats for women in the Parliament. The Bangladesh local
government act kept the position of Vice Chairman reserved for woman to elect with direct vote of
women voters.

But Women still need guarantee from father or husband for Bank loan. The passport authority asked
for consent of husband to issue Passport to a married woman. Some time, immigration authority
asked for written permission of husband going abroad. The author talked to immigration police on
this issue and their replied that they take additional measures in order to "prevent" women trafficking
for immoral profession.

Traditionally, women own less property than men and their property rights are less secure. One
reason for gaps between women's ownership of assets and men's may be inheritance. More over
the customs and practice of the society even prevent the women over the right of properties. The
educated men also try to influence their daughters and sisters to give the right over the properties of
father. Women don't take such issue to the court to establish their rights over properties.

The widows are worse sufferer of religious and national law of inheritance. Female surviving
spouses do not have the same inheritance rights as their male counterparts. None of the OECD
high-income economies, nor the economies in Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the
Caribbean, have legal restrictions on the ability of female surviving spouses to inherit. In East Asia
and the Pacific, four economies-Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Tonga-do not grant
widows equal inheritance rights.
In South Asia, widows do not have equal inheritance rights in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and
Pakistan. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the law does not give equal inheritance rights to widows in nine
economies: Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritania, Senegal, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania and
Uganda. None of the economies in the Middle East and North Africa, except Malta, grant widows the
same inheritance rights as widowers.

There are some legal and social restrictions on working hours, sectors and occupations limit the
range of jobs that women can hold and can lead to occupational segregation and confinement of
women to low-paying sectors and activities. But women in Bangladesh working equally in
agriculture, construction and some other hardworking job but wages are less than man.

The income tax laws 16 of 173 economies under study -Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso,
Cambodia, Republic of Congo, Fiji, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, the Lao People's Democratic Republic,
Malaysia, Morocco, Niger, the Philippines, Togo and Tunisia- tax provisions directly favor men.
These economies either grant men an explicit tax deduction or credit, or an implicit tax deduction or
credit is granted to the male head of household. Bangladesh tax law has given higher exempted
income limit of tax for assessing the taxable income.

Other issues arise when women cannot convey nationality to their children or spouses. The women
in 22 surveyed countries do not allow married mothers to pass citizenship on to their children as
fathers can, and 44 do not allow married women to pass citizenship to their spouses as married men
can. Bangladesh law also does have such restriction on women. A mother's inability to pass her
citizenship to her children may mean that they cannot access services, such as free public education
or health care. The children of expatriate mother unable to transfer the citizenship to child and they
are deprived of property and other rights in Bangladesh. It may also mean that when the children
seek jobs, immigration laws will not allow them to work.

In recent years, regional and international human rights instruments have recognized the need for
legal protection and called for enactment of laws covering all forms of violence against women.
Despite progress, however, some economies still have no legal protections against domestic
violence or sexual harassment. Women, Business and the Law data show that 18 economies have
no legislation in either area:

Afghanistan; Cameroon; Chad; Republic of Congo; Djibouti; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Guinea;
Haiti; Islamic Republic of Iran; Liberia; Mali; Mauritania; Oman; Russia; South Sudan; Swaziland;
and Uzbekistan. The protecting of women from violence indicator examines laws on domestic
violence against women and the existence and scope of laws on sexual harassment. Violence
affects women and girls of all ages, regardless of location, income level or social status.

It can undermine women's economic empowerment by preventing employment and blocking access
to other financial resources. Of the economies covered, 127 have laws on domestic violence, of
which 95 countries cover both physical and sexual violence and 122 countries cover psychological
violence. The Economic violence, which can result in women being deprived of the economic means
to leave an abusive relationship, is rarely covered. Subjecting women to economic violence is not
addressed in 94 of the total 173 economies for which data has been collected.

Laws covering all four types of violence are prevalent in Europe and Central Asia, and in South Asia,
where about 74% of economies examined cover physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse.
This is also the case in 63% of economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, 44% in East Asia
and the Pacific, 37% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 25% of OECD high income economies.

The equal opportunities for women in business and the workplace depend on an interplay of
economic, social and cultural factors. For example, unless women have opportunities to get an
education or build their skills, equalizing laws affecting entrepreneurship and employment mean
little. Equalizing the ability to work might not result in more women entering the workforce if they are
still expected to be the primary caregivers for their children and access to childcare is limited. Other
factors, such as infrastructure-for example, safe transportation, might also affect women's ability and
desire to work in certain locations or at night.

Equal rights of the women can be ensured with mandatory rights in constitution, marriage and family
codes, labor laws, passport procedures, citizenship rules, inheritance statutes, tax regulations, land
laws, gender equality laws, civil procedure rules, electoral laws, social security codes, criminal laws
and laws on violence against women. The inequalities between and men and women impede
development, hinder prosperity and undermine national competitiveness.

It is found in many researches that economic empowerment seems to protect women from violence:
women living in wealthier households have a 45% lower risk of violence than those living in poorer
households. An economy cannot grow to its full potential if its women are not treated on par with
men.

The writer is a legal economist. Email: mssiddiqui2035@gmail.com