2.a. The geography of gender inequality is complex and contested

Question 1

What is gender inequality

Answer 1

• the unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender where by men or usually women are denied the same rights and opportunities across sectors of society
• 19.7%- average wage gap between men and women in 2013- clear inequality
• this is a major obstacle to development

Question 2

How is gender inequality measured

Answer 2

• the Global Gender Gap index devised by the World Economic Forum
• index focuses on Health, education, economy and politics

Question 3

To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is economic participation and opportunity

Answer 3

• labour force participation
• wage equalitu for similar work
• estimated earned income
• legislators, senior officials and managers
• professional and technical workers

Question 4

To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is educational attainment

Answer 4

• literacy rate

- enrolment in primary/secondary/tertiary education

Question 5

To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is health and survival

Answer 5

• sex rates at birth

- health life expectancy

Question 6

To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is political empowerment

Answer 6

• women in parliament
• women in ministrial positions
• years with female head of state (last 50)

Question 7

To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What are some strengths of this criteria

Answer 7

• highlights opportunities to education/rights
• highlights gender differences in opportunities
• highlights gender preferences
• useful as empowerment of women- ensures women are considered in decision making

Question 8

To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What are some weaknesses of this criteria

Answer 8

• female desire for job pregerences does not account for
• education is the first step but of little use if opportunities stop
• doesn’t cover apsects of actions like access to family planning
• years in power distorted by long term holding of head of state

Question 9

Describe the global distibution of the Gender gAP 2014

Answer 9

• highest index score in Australia, USA and Canada
• top 4 countries with least inequality are Scandinavian
• lowest index score in Chad, Nigeria, India and Saudi Arabia

Question 10

What are some of the challenges of gender inequality

Answer 10

-access to education and health care
-violence against women
-forced marriage
-trafficking
-access to reproductive health services
challenges often comes from attitudes towards women by men

Question 11

How is gender quality being tackled

Answer 11

• there have been improvements in protecting/promoting human rights but still gender based discrimination and exploitation- most prevalent in LICs
• the UN has established conventions e.g. CEDAW to outlaw gender discrimination
• NGOs- working with local communities
• International treaties set out the obligations of national governments

Question 12

Educational opportunity- Where do girls still suffer from exclusion from education

Answer 12

• Middle East e.g. Afghanistan

- LIDC African countries e.g. Benin/Nigeria

Question 13

Educational opportunity- Social factors to explain why girls cannot access education

Answer 13

• household obligations often fall on the eldest girl when family burden of work increases
• inadequate sanitation e.g. no private latrines
• insufficient number of female teatures
• negative classroom environments- girls face violence/exploitation

Question 14

Educational opportunity- Political factors to explain why girls cannot access education

Answer 14

• in patriarchal systems, female education may only be of benefit to the family into which a daughter marries
• unsufficient government investment
• inadequate legislation

Question 15

Educational opportunity- Economic factors to explain why girls cannot access education

Answer 15

-costs may prohibit all the children in a family from continuing in secondary education

Question 16

Educational opportunity- What is the importance of female education

Answer 16

• key to empowering women and achieving gender equality in all respects
• helps women to move into the labour market and increase production capacity of labour force

Question 17

Educational opportunity- How is educational opportunity being tackled

Answer 17

• UN established the Girls’ Education Initiative. UNICEF lead agency
• many NGOs are involved in education patnerships in poorer countries and increasingly MNCs are assuming a role in education as part of their corporate social rsponsiblity

Question 18

Access to reproductive health services- where are females most at risk

Answer 18

• developing countries

- those living in poor communities in the developing world

Question 19

Acess to reproductive health services- social/political/economic factors affecting female reproductive health

Answer 19

• social- early forced marriage, high rate of young pregnancies, forced abortion
• political- lack of employment in family size, harmful traditional practices, pressure by MDGs on government
• economic- poor families most at risk cannot afford health care

Question 20

Reproductive health care- why are economically/socially disadvantaged females at risk and what is being done abount this

Answer 20

• they are less likely to gain access to health services, information and education
• they can face early marriage/child bearing e.g. developing countries- 1/3 teenagers marry before 18
• office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights helping as well as work of NGOs e.g. ICRW

Question 21

Employment opportunity- what is the labour force participation rate and how does it vary between different areas of the world

Answer 21

• it is an index of equality used in the UNDP. Ratio of females:males within a country’s working population that engages in the labour market
• countries with a high HDI e.g. USA have a high labour force participation Ratio but none have achieved female-male employment parity. India has low ratio

Question 22

Employment opportunity- social/political/economic factors affecting spacial variation

Answer 22

• social- cultural beliefs/practices of religions or social groups, social acceptance of women as contributors to household income, gender based norms
• economic- economic costs of providing maternity pay, ability to afford/provide childcare
• political- levels of discrimination by employers, sectoral structure of labour market, degress to which equal opportunity is safeguarded by law