FERMINIZATION

 The shift in gender roles and sex roles in a society, group or organization towards a
focus upon the feminine.

 The incorporation of women into a group or a profession that was once dominated by
men.

 In both developed and developing countries, that has been an increase in the number
of females headed households. Problematic? Why? = Feminizations of Poverty

 Female Headed Household (FHH) that do not have access to remittance from male
earners are generally assumed to be poorer than male headed households.

 FHH are more vulnerable to increased unemployment and reduction in social and
welfare spending

 Feminizations is an action or a process of becoming more feminine. It involves

changes over time/period.

 The term was first used by Diana Pierce in 1976. Breakthrough in 1990’s on 4 th
conference on women

 Being a platform for actor (BPFA) = 70% of the global poor are woman

 Brought women more squarely into the frame of international. Poverty reduction
strategy paper (PRSP) AND MDG’S

 Feminization of poverty= making call that implies the world to question our
assumptions about poverty itself by examining how it is caused, manifested and
reduced and to do this from a gender perspective”. www.tandfonline.com

Feminizations of poverty= female face of poverty

 Phenomenon in which women represents a higher percentage (%) of the society’s

poorest group.

 Process in which deep-seated and multi-cultural factors cause and exacerbate poverty
among women and girls

 Trend of increasing inequality in living standard between man and women due to the
widening gender gap in poverty.
  Gender related vulnerability for women= disparities in wages and access to
employment

 UN: www.unrisd.org

Beijing 1955 proclaimed

 The majority (70%) of the global poor were women.

 Persistent and increasing poverty among women

 Gender inequality in poverty= male-female poverty gaps

 According to Chant (2008) three tenet of poverty of Feminization of poverty:

1. Women are poorer than men

2. The indices of poverty among women is increasing relative to men overtime

3. Growing poverty among women is linked with the feminization of household

headship.

 Feminization of poverty relates to the way poverty changes overtime. Feminization is

a process.

 Chant (2008)= proposed:

1. Feminization of Responsibility/ obligation

2. Feminized burden

3. Female altruism

4. Changes in the composition of poverty population

FACT/DATE ON THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY

 The majority of the 1.5 Billion people living on or a day or less are women

 The gap between women and men caught in the cycle of poverty has continued to
widen in the past decade (Feminization of poverty)

 Women earn averagely, slightly more than 50% of what men earn.
  Women living in poverty are often denied access to critical resources such as credit,
land and inheritances

 Women’s labour goes unrewarded and unrecognized. Their healthcare and nutritional
need are not given priority.

 They lack sufficient access to education and support services

 Their participation in D-M at home and the community are minimal

 Persistent and increasing burden of poverty are on women.

 UN (1996) = UN concern on the status of women= take action

 Women are the world’s poor- Beijing conference

 Gender dimension to poverty

 Redefine poverty to include:

1. Denial of opportunities and choices.

2. Introduce gender perspective on all policies and programs to eradicate poverty

in all states

 Negative impact of the globalization of the world economy is borne

disproportionately by women how?

Cost of inflation, reduction in public spending and social programmes = the burden to family
= women often shoulder the burden.

 UN encourages countries to focus on women in order to alleviate their suffering and

burden= empowering women that is economically, politically and socially.

 Read Beijing platform for action 1995. www.unrisd.org>beijing+20chant and

www.un.org

 Policies and programmes adopted by different countries- economy, political,

legislative and administrative reform to five full and equal access to economic
resources including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land.

 No substantiated
  UNIFEM (2002: 61) contend that “the Feminization of poverty is present only in
some countries in Latin America and that women are nowhere near the 70% of people
in income. Poverty as popularly expanded

 Single household: households in Africa? South Africa.

 Change of family structure

 Wage gaps

 Women prevalence in low paid occupations

 Lack of work- family support

 Challenges involved in accessing public benefits

FP KEY WORDS

 Disproportional representation
 Inequality between men and women in the labour force=income
 Persistent & Increasing burden of poverty among women
 2/3 of the poor over age 16 were women (Pearce 1978)
 Nearly all households = one half of all poor families were females headed up from
36% in the early 70s
 Inspite of gains recorded through the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) women and
children continue to be more likely than men to live below the poverty line (World
Bank, 2018)

In 2018, the world Bank Global Monitoring database reported that:

 Children particularly girls, account for 44% of individuals living in extreme poverty-a
gender gap that continues to widen with age.
 By age 25-34, 122 women live in poor households for every 100 men of the same age
group & people grow older.

Factors contributing to FP include:

 Changes in family structure

 Education and labour force participation rate. Centrality of wage differentiated
 The impact of the welfare=government & Public Assistance State
Feminization of Poverty

Inputting on our gender sensitivity inorder to analyze the phenomenon, impact as well as
strategies to alleviate poverty.

Issues through gender sensitive lens=perspectives which helps us to see things through
greater detail.

 Feminization is derived from feminism which is a movement dedicated to achieving

political, social and economic equality for women in poverty
 FP strive to explain why women are most affected by poverty and so endeavor to
critically analyze the why and how poverty affects women (mostly) and how women
can get out of this rot/circle of poverty.

Gender equality

 Marriage as a way of escaping poverty

 World population of women in 2017=49.6=varies differences in mortal rate life
expectancy. World Bank 2019
 Rate of Poverty in women is more than men.
 There is severity of poverty in women due to social factor, mentality.

Women are majority of the world’s poorest population. Women are mostly engaged in unpaid
work in the household even when they work for wages. This imposes what is called double
burden in women.

Women bear the brunt of unequal distribution of social benefit and costs. Men are the ones
that make decisions about power, who gets what and where and how. These women are
subordinated in the society as a result o the unequal power relationships between women and
men.

 Employers hire women on the assumption that they will provide a ‘docile’ labour
force unlikely to recognize for better working conditions. This leads to a “gendered
division of labour. E.g. women in agriculture=cash crop farmers=exposed to vagaries
 of weather=no credit facilities=subsistence production=no skill & tech=producing for
family needs.
 Workers are disproportionately situated in low-paid or non-remunerated occupations
far from he decision-making process/halls of power: social services, teachers, care-
givers=secretaries, domestic workers, clerical workers, traders, nurses.
Prostitutes=low wages/poor working conditions.
 Occupations that are disproportionately populated by women tend to be the most
poorly paid i.e. paid wages at below subsistence levels.

Feminization of poverty simply means:

 Poverty has a woman’s face

 The phenomenon in which women & children experience poverty at rates that are
disproportionately high in comparison to men.
 Of all the people in the world 70% of women all constitute the majority and more than
½ of them live in extreme poverty.
 Today 2 out of 3 poor adults are women; three fourths of the poor are women and
children. FP=Trend=Change=Process + always skewed against women.

FP was concentrated in the 1970 by Diana Pearce. Why?

 Highly gendered nature of economic disparity.

Feminized poverty encompasses not only income or individual suffering, it ensnares

generation after generation in a vicious cycle of poverty and affects the health and well-being
of women and their families all over the world.

FP means that women make higher incidence of poverty than men, that their poverty is more
severe than that of men and that Poverty among women is on the increase.

FP=focus on 3 Areas:

 Gendered division of labour= upward paid jobs for men & downward paid ones for
women.
 Inequality in resource access and disposal.
 Women’s limited access in defense of their interests which is conditioned by
economic, legal, socio-cultural & other factors.

Causes of Women Poverty

 Demographic composition
 Economic Conditions
 Government Policy