2A) The geography of gender inequality is complex and contested Flashcards
What is gender inequality
- 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
How is gender inequality measured
- the Global Gender Gap index devised by the World Economic Forum
- index focuses on Health, education, economy and politics
To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is economic participation and opportunity
- labour force participation
- wage equalitu for similar work
- estimated earned income
- legislators, senior officials and managers
- professional and technical workers
To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is educational attainment
- literacy rate
- enrolment in primary/secondary/tertiary education
To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is health and survival
- sex rates at birth
- health life expectancy
To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What is political empowerment
- women in parliament
- women in ministrial positions
- years with female head of state (last 50)
To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What are some strengths of this criteria
- 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
To create the Global Gender Gap, the World Economic Forum use several indicies. What are some weaknesses of this criteria
- 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
Describe the global distibution of the Gender gAP 2014
- 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
What are some of the challenges of gender inequality
-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
How is gender quality being tackled
- 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
Educational opportunity- Where do girls still suffer from exclusion from education
- Middle East e.g. Afghanistan
- LIDC African countries e.g. Benin/Nigeria
Educational opportunity- Social factors to explain why girls cannot access education
- 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
Educational opportunity- Political factors to explain why girls cannot access education
- in patriarchal systems, female education may only be of benefit to the family into which a daughter marries
- unsufficient government investment
- inadequate legislation
Educational opportunity- Economic factors to explain why girls cannot access education
-costs may prohibit all the children in a family from continuing in secondary education
Educational opportunity- What is the importance of female education
- 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
Educational opportunity- How is educational opportunity being tackled
- 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
Access to reproductive health services- where are females most at risk
- developing countries
- those living in poor communities in the developing world
Acess to reproductive health services- social/political/economic factors affecting female reproductive health
- 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
Reproductive health care- why are economically/socially disadvantaged females at risk and what is being done abount this
- 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
Employment opportunity- what is the labour force participation rate and how does it vary between different areas of the world
- 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
Employment opportunity- social/political/economic factors affecting spacial variation
- 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
