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4.2.1 The gendered nature of poverty

Written by: International Labour Organization

Article Overview: Over two thirds of those living in absolute poverty are women (UNDP, 1998). As noted earlier, women are very heavily concentrated in the most marginal survival enterprises (often working at home) and in wage employment in secondary labour markets that are characterised by low skills and high turnover. In Sub-Saharan Africa, they also undertake the bulk of agricultural production. The 'training crisis' is, therefore, overwhelmingly linked to the economic and social vulnerability of women and particularly the multiple constraints that prevent them from exploiting training opportunities.

4.2.1 The gendered nature of poverty

Over two thirds of those living in absolute poverty are women (UNDP, 1998). As noted earlier, women are very heavily concentrated in the most marginal survival enterprises (often working at home) and in wage employment in secondary labour markets that are characterised by low skills and high turnover. In Sub-Saharan Africa, they also undertake the bulk of agricultural production. The 'training crisis' is, therefore, overwhelmingly linked to the economic and social vulnerability of women and particularly the multiple constraints that prevent them from exploiting training opportunities.

In all societies, there are four basic institutional arenas - the market, state, community and the household. Each arena is characterised by specific rules, norms and practices which determine structures of entitlements and disentitlements for individuals and groups of individuals. There has been a pervasive failure to ground training policies and practices for women on a sound understanding of these institutional processes. More innovative training, especially in 'non-traditional areas,' has frequently failed to achieve significant and sustainable impacts precisely because it challenges "the norms of gender propriety which constitutes a risk which poorer households are unwilling to take on" (Kabeer, 1997:5). The focus of most training on productivity has 'redistributive connotations' that are threatening to gender relations.

Poor women are already "hemmed in by a complex bundle of risks" which seriously limits their degree of individual 'agency' with respect to most decisions that affect their own well being and that of their children and other household members. However, as far as training is concerned, the degree of female agency varies very considerably between regions and countries. It is especially limited in the 'patriarchal belt' that stretches across North Africa, the Middle and Near East and South Asia. The 'invisibility' of women in these regions is acute. But is also the case that nearly one-third of households in the developing world as a whole are female-headed. While women in these households are much freer to decide what education and training is desirable for themselves and their dependants, higher levels of poverty in this type of household may prevent women from availing themselves of training opportunities.(10)

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING
PAPERS
43
Learning to change: Skills
development among the
economically vulnerable and
socially excluded in
developing countries
Paul Bennell
Employment and Training Department
International Labour Office Geneva
First published 1999

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Article Tags: absolute poverty, agricultural production, connotations, household members, individual agency, innovative training, institutional arenas, institutional processes, invisibility, labour markets, norms, north africa, poor women, propriety, social vulnerability, south asia, sub saharan africa, survival enterprises, traditional areas, working at home



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