What’s
mine is yours: household dynamics and women’s wages
International Women’s Day 2012
“As many
as a third of married women in Malawi and a fifth of married women in India are
not involved in spending decisions, even about their own income.” [1]
I read that
sentence twice to be sure I hadn’t misunderstood it, and then carried on:
“Even in
an upper-middle-income country like Turkey, more than a quarter of married
women in the lowest income quantile lack control over their earned income.”
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| ©IFAD/Asad Zaidi |
Women’s “lack of control” over the money that they themselves bring home shows the deep-seated
nature of gender inequality. If we don’t fight that inequality, then enabling
women to increase their incomes may only put more money in the pockets of their
husbands.
Similarly, helping them to increase their
productivity may put more food on the market – but it may not change the women
farmers’ quality of life.
That’s why
IFAD’s work to empower women is so crucial to everything that we do.
Without that empowerment, inequality will continue to prevent the benefits of
economic growth and social development reaching poor rural women.
That in turn
hampers development – leaving deep pockets of deprivation and desperation that
are handed on from generation to generation.
Even more
shocking and revealing are statistics on what women think about domestic violence:
“On
average, 29 percent of women in countries with data concurred that wife beating
was justified for arguing with the husband, 25 percent for refusing to have
sex, and 21 percent for burning food.”[2]
Those are
just averages. The country-specific figures are truly shocking – with over 80
per cent of women in one east African nation saying that
wife-beating is justified.
Let’s
walk the gender talk
There’s a
lot of apparent consensus today at the international level that levelling the
playing field for women makes economic sense. IFAD President Nwanze is a vocal
champion of women’s rights. And Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti went off-script at
our recent Governing Council meeting to stress the importance of women’s role
and their rights.
Yet
empowerment is difficult to do, and it’s difficult to measure. For that reason,
one of our commitments to our Members under IFAD9 is to improve the indicators
that measure impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment, so that we can
better analyse what works and what doesn’t for poor rural women. At the same time, we are
committed to promoting expanded economic opportunities for women.
When she
visited IFAD last year, UN Women Director Michele Bachelet touched on the
importance of gender champions and quotas. International Women’s Day is a good
occasion for us to remember her words.
An
organization that works to empower poor rural women must have powerful women
within it. And it must have powerful men and women who are prepared to stand up
and champion women’s rights.
Let’s
celebrate International Women’s Day at IFAD with a renewed commitment to fight
gender inequality on our doorstep and in the countries where we work.
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