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Poverty &

The Enterprise Life cycle

From a Gender Perspective

Training on Income Generation and Poverty Reduction March 2009

Mekong Institute, Khon Kaen, Thailand

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Presentation Outline

• The feminization of poverty• Gender dimensions of poverty• Empowerment• What is empowering about women’s business?• What can be disempowering about women’s business?• Gendered obstacles in starting up a business• Gendered obstacles in running business• Gendered obstacles faced by rural women• Gendered obstacles faced by urban women

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The Feminization of Poverty

• 1.3 billion people in poverty, 70 per cent are women

•Women and men experience poverty differently

• Poverty generally has more negative effects on women

• Women heads were more likely to have to combine income generation with domestic work

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The Feminization of Poverty

• Disproportionate number of female-headed households among the poor

• Female heads worked 10 more hours per week than male heads

• Spread of income-generating projects for women, but little effect on their marginalised status

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The Feminization of Poverty

Two-pronged strategy (1990)• Promote employment opportunities • Better human capital formation

Four Dimensions of Poverty• Opportunities• Capabilities• Security• Empowerment

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Gender Dimensions of Poverty

• Limited opportunities, unequal access to labour markets/productive assets, and wage discrimination

• Low capabilities as a result of unequal access to education, health, and other resources

• Security: vulnerability of economic risk, natural disasters, civil and domestic violence, environmental risks

• Empowerment: lack of mobility, limited/no access to state institutions, lack of involvement in decision making

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Empowerment

• Empowerment implies people - both women and men - taking control over their lives: setting their own agendas, gaining skills (or having their own skills and knowledge recognized), increasing self-confidence, solving problems, and developing self-reliance.

• It is both a process and an outcome.

• Empowerment implied an expansion in women's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them.

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What is empowering about women’s business?

• Better recognition in the family/ community• Better be able to decide on intra-household resource

distribution•Daughter’s education

• Social network and information• Knowledge and skill

• Better negotiation power/ autonomy

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What can be disempowering about women’s business?

•Triple burden/ long working hours•Is it worth the investment of time?•Is it because of lack of option?•Can women maintain resource control?•Will it lead to decrease in men’s contribution to household?•Will it lead to less cooperation from family members? Jealousy?•Safety and occupational health hazard

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Gendered obstacles in starting up a business

•Education and skill•Triple burden (disproportionate on poor women)

–childcare•Stereotype about women’s business•Self-confidence•Mobility restriction

• Family support (threat to men, not taken seriously, notion that ‘women should give priority to household work’)•Fear of failure can be larger for women

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Gendered obstacles in running business

•Limited mobility leads to limited information on market

•Lack of access to government offices leads to limited information on state support schemes and regulations.

•Childcare and taking care of the sick can affect the time and effort women can put into business.

•Limited information, access to capital and time can make women respond to market changes slower than men.

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Gendered obstacles in running business

•No role models to grow or develop business•Few place where they can go to get advice. •Women can be seen to be an easy prey of harassment (customers, police, officers, competitors).•Family might try to take over the business if it is successful. •Rumours to hurt her reputation can be spread if she is seen as too successful

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Gendered obstacles faced by rural women

•Low management skills•Social problems concerning degrading women as compared to men• Tendency of the funding agencies to support large enterprises rather than the small ones usually run by women

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Gendered obstacles faced by rural women

•Lack of women’s awareness about their rights•Lack of legal documents (eg identification card, birth certificate, marriage certificate)

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Gendered obstacles faced by urban women

• Subcontracting and informalisation in urban setting (60% of workforce is women)• The very low returns to women’s work in the informal economy

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Gendered obstacles faced by urban women

• The informal sector remains excluded from access to formal financial services

• Reinforce invisibility and marginalization of women’s work• Harassment• Access to property rights and capital• Infrastructure and social services

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Sources

This presentation is partially based on the following documents:

1. “Gender consideration in income generation and poverty reduction intervention”, presentation at “Training workshop on Income generation and poverty reduction for development”, 2007 by Kyoko Kusakabe, Associate Professor, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

2. Gender and Entrepreneurship Together: GET Ahead for Women in Enterprise: Training Package and Resource Kit, Susanne Bauer, Gerry Finnegan and Nelien Haspels, Thailand, ILO, 2004

3. Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals, Naila Kabeer, 2003

4. Correlates of Poverty: Gender Dimensions, Rehana Siddiqui & Shahnaz Harrid, Final report for IDRC Canada, 2003

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Thank you