ens 458 gender and the Environment

Assignment 2

UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA ENS 458: PART II DR MOSETLHIEmpirical Basis of Gender & Environment Relationship:

Author: Mr Koketso Kanekane

Trends and Impacts of Rural-Urban migration on Gender Roles and Division of Labour between Men and Women in China

Rural-urban migration is the movement of people from the countryside to the city; rural urban

migration leads to rural depopulation1 and leads to urban population increase2. In one voice with

this, (Saracoglu & Roe, 2004) argues that rural urban migration is a change in the spatial

distribution of population in a given country over time. Gender role refers to the activities or

behaviors typically associated with women or men. Gender roles as defined by Susan Basow

cited in (UNESCO , 2000) “refers to society's evaluation of behaviour as masculine or feminine,

e.g., cooking is feminine, while fishing is a masculine role in most societies”. Division of labor is

the separation of works in the family, office or corporate. Labor according to (Zhang, Gao, & Li,

2013) can be categorized into two types: waged labor and domestic labor. Waged labor refers to

the work of providing goods and services to sustain family livelihood, domestic labor refers to

unpaid work done to maintain the operation of the households.

China is the world’s third largest country in terms of land area, it has the largest population.

Until 2012, the majority of that population lived in remote rural areas with mountainous terrain

and infertile lands. Life in rural China is difficult for many reasons; and with China’s relatively

recent rise to economic power, rural Chinese have begun to move to cities in an accelerating

trend of rural-urban migration3. Rural- urban migration is caused by; firstly, labor Surplus in

rural China and with very few jobs besides farming available, workers look to the large cities.

Secondly, extreme poverty in rural areas4; according to (Niño-Zarazúa & Addison, 2012), 94

percent of China’s rural population lived on less than US$1.25 a day in the early 1980s and by

2005, the percentage of people in poverty had fallen to 26 percent in rural areas. The need for

income drives the poor to areas with a promise of new income. Lastly, rural Chinese live a

mainly agrarian lifestyle with access to clean water limited, lack of modern equipment, constant

1 Rural depopulation is the process in which population density in rural areas decreases overtime. This is caused by the migration of people to urban areas in search of a higher quality of living (employment, education and health services). Rural populace move out in large numbers temporarily or permanently to towns and cities to seek out new opportunities, improved livelihoods and better standard of living, contends (Abdullahi, Shaibu-Imodagbe,Mohammed, Sa’id, & Idris , 2009). 2 (Gugler,1998) cited in (Mitra & Murayama, 2008) ) argues that Around two-fifth of the total urban growth in the Third world is accounted by the rural-to-urban migration 3See more at http://projectpartner.org/poverty/untold-story-chinas-rural-urban-migration/ Accessed 20 April 2016 4 About 362 million Chinese live on less than $2/day.

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threat of extreme drought, each generation becomes less entrenched in this lifestyle and

ultimately look to find work in cities that seems more productive. Migration in China is between

hukou, non-hukou and rural labour migrants, prominent migrants being the rural labor migrant5,

who as mentioned above go look for greener pastures at the cities.

China uses the household registration system called the hukou system to deal with rural-urban

migration issue6 and control the flow of migrants. The hukou system, as stated by (Education

Services Australia , 2013) requires people moving to cities in China from country areas must be

'registered' and buy a permit. The cost of the permits vary, but for cities such as Beijing they are

quite expensive7 and some permits allow permanent migration but most do not. Permanent

residence is given to those who are highly educated, have special skills or have immediate family

already resident with legal status. The system had experienced some reforms which some argue

discriminate against poor migrant workers and in favor of the already wealthy and educated. In

one voice with this, (Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 2005) argues that these

reforms have shifted the hukou system from a method of restricting changes in permanent

residence to a barrier preventing some of China’s most vulnerable citizens from receiving public

services.

This paper intends to identify and discuss the trends and impacts of rural-urban migration on

gender roles and division of labour between men and women in China.

The Trends of Rural-urban Migration

Over the last quarter century, there has been general increase in the number of migrants in China.

(Chan K. W., 2012, p. 4) argues that “despite this, the annual number of hukou8 migrants

recorded by the Ministry of Public Security remained stable, between 17 and 21 million people

in the early 1980s. The majority of migrants were predominantly non-hukou9 migrants from the

rural areas since the early 1980s.” The stability of the number of hukou migrants and of the

percent in urban areas may reflect strong government intervention in area of hukou migration 5 “Labour migration accounts for about 50-60% of migration, similar to other developing countries” (Chan, Liu, & Yang, 1999, p. 431).6 China’s hukou (household registration) system has imposed strict limits on ordinary Chinese citizens changing their permanent place of residence since it was instituted in the 1950s.7 Even a six-month permit can cost up to a year’s average income.8 Migration with "local" residency rights (bendi hukou) (hereafter, hukou migration). This is usually open only to a very select group (currently, the rich or the highly educated), and immediate family members of residents with local hukou (Chan and Buckingham, 2008);9 Migration without hukou residency rights (non-hukou migration).

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across city, town and township boundaries, through mechanisms such as a quota control. The

non-hukou migrant population has been growing since the early 1980s. (Chan, Liu, & Yang,

1999, p. 431) maintains “that for those who did not have a local hukou in the destination (non-

hukou migrants), they would have to be in the destination for at least one year, or to be away

from their place of registration for at least one year (State Council and SSB, 1993).”

Rural to urban migration was strictly regulated and suppressed in the 1960s and 1970s, it was

reserved for bringing in the necessary labour force in support of state initiated programmes.

Migration to the city was only an ordinary peasant's dream. Today, peasants can move to many

places and work as `temporary' labour10. Of like mind, (Chan K. W., 2012) argues that the size of

the rural migrant labor generally grew from about 50-60 million in the early 1990s to exceed 100

million in the early years of this century and in 2009 when the figure was close to 150 million.

Slow growth was observed in the number of migrants in the second half of the 1990s. Going

after this, (Chan K. W., 2012) argues this slowdown was likely caused by smaller rural outflows

related to the sluggish urban economy in this period, the job competition from laid-off workers

of urban state-owned enterprises, the increasingly protectionist policies used by local

governments against recruitment of outsiders, and improvement in the rural economy, at least

between 1996 and 199911.

The 1995 survey according to (Chan K. W., 2012) reported 72% of the inter-county migration

was within provinces; the remaining 28 per cent (9.2 million people) were inter-provincial

migrants. The volume of migration had increased substantially by 1995-2000, the predominant

flow during 1995-2000 was from rural to urban areas with 50.32 million migrants. In the early

years of the 21st century, demand for migrant labor resumed at a high level, especially after

China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. In 2002-2007, the annual

average growth of rural migrant labor was 6.6 million, compared to an annual average of about 4

million in the 1990s. There was however slow migration in the year 2004 and early 2010, this

ultimately led to shortages of migrant labor in the Pearl River Delta which had far higher pace of

demand growth for migrant workers and shortages in the Chinese export industry12. In 2009, 10 But getting formally registered as full urban residents in a medium-sized or large city is still largely out of reach. 11 The slow migration growth in the second half of the 1990s also corresponds to the general rural-urban migration trends identified by Chan and Hu (2003), and Cai (2002, p. 70), because rural-urban migration made up a large proportion of the rural migrant labor flows. 12 Shortages of migrant labor in Chinese export industry was due to the alteration of the economic landscape where most migrant labor was employed; about 23 million migrant workers lost their jobs in early 2009. Under China’s

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according to (Hu, 2012) there were 145 million rural-urban migrants in China, accounting for

about 11 percent of the total population, an estimated 85 million to 100 million among them born

after 1980.

In the rear of rural-urban migration in China, the volume of migration has expanded steadily

since the early 1980s, accelerated in the first half of the 1990s and, again in the first decade of

the twenty-first century. While the volume of annual hukou migration remained quite stable in

the last 30 years, non-hukou migration has become more voluminous. Rural-urban migration has

played a very important part in China’s recent epic urbanization13. Even if only the urban

population increase was 440-622 million in 2009 since 1979 was migration, the volume of rural-

urban migration in such a short period is likely the largest in human history.

Impacts of Rural-urban Migration on Gender Roles or Division of Labor

Gender affects and is affected by social, political, economic, and religious forces. Migration

represents a drastic life change, gender roles and relations often shift in this process; gender

permeates many of the practices, identities, and institutions involved in the processes of rural-

urban migration, asserts (Knapp, Muller, & Quiros, 2009).

As we could expect in such areas, that is urban areas; there are many reports of the breakdown of

the sexual or gender division of labor. As generally labor in households can be categorized into

waged labor performed by husbands and domestic labor performed by the wife. There are

changes in division of labor in households after migration, (Zhang N. , 2014) contends waged

work transforms rural women from an invisible laborer in the household to a visible cash earner

in the city, enables them to be financially independent from their families, and gives women an

opportunity to recognize their own value and ability and gain confidence in themselves. Studying

changes in gender division of labor in China, (Zhang, Gao, & Li, 2013) found out that most

wives start to gain independent labor positions after migration. Before migration, most women

are bound to work inside the house and do some trivial labor and their income are almost

invisible and often ignored by the family.

massive fiscal stimulus program, many short-term jobs (especially in the construction sector, such as building railway projects) were created and were able to re-absorb the unemployed.13 (Chan, 2010c) cited in (Chan K. W., 2012), in the 30 years since 1979, China’s urban population has grown by about 440 million to 622 million in 2009.

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In one voice with this, (Davin, 1996, p. 25) claims “women or men are drawn into work they

would not otherwise have done; men may take on what is normally thought of as women's work,

where there is heavy migration of women.” Women may take over most of the agricultural work,

even doing tasks which traditionally were always performed by men. By contrast, (Wan

Shanping 1993) cited in (Davin, 1996) argues that in Anhui it has been reported that men cook,

clean, and even sew when the female members of their family have gone to work in the cities.

Similarly as women migrate to work in the cities, they work jobs thought to be done by men in

the cities. Lee (1995) (Fan, 2003, p. 28) “argues that the youth and short tenure of migrant

women have given rise to the ‘maiden worker’ construction which perpetuates their inferiority

and vulnerability to exploitation at the urban workplace.”

There is also the breakdown of traditional norms, rural migrant women readily depart from

peasant identity; rejecting the identity of ‘dagongmei’14. (Gaetano, 2008: 641-642) in her study

of rural migrant women in Beijing cited in (Zhang N. , 2014) concludes that upon migration,

rural women reject rural identity and all that it signifies, preferring instead to embrace ‘a more

sexualized, urban femininity’ through a discourse of ‘eating spring rice’15. It is worth pointing

out that embracing an ‘urban lifestyle’ or having a desire to be modern does not necessarily mean

that migrant women can easily discard their peasant identity or the low quality ‘di suzhi’ that is

linked to it contends (Zhang N. , 2014) 16. Urban living also is associated with greater anonymity

and residential mobility, erosion of traditional values, which leads to more liberal behavioral

norms, and increased diversities in population and social networks17. The breakdown in

traditional norms about sexual behavior in China in the last three decades is arguably one of the

main contributing factors of the spread of commercial sex and other risky sexual behaviors in

urban China, states (Yang , 2014). Socioeconomic characteristics of the urban environment may

also be conducive to the spread of risky sexual behaviors (Frye et al., 2006) in (Yang , 2014)18.

14 identity for rural migrant women15chi qingchunfan 16 Such alienation and other institutional barriers that rural migrant women have to face in the city force them to rely heavily on their family and kinship guanxi networks for support, which may further push women to reconcile themselves to peasant identity.17 (Frye et al., 2006; Galea et al., 2005; Weiss & McMichael, 2004) in (Yang , 2014).18Like any other human behavior, risky sexual behaviors are not inborn but learned through socialization (Bandura, 1986; Clark, 1987).

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There are also changes in decision making role perceived to be of the men in families. (Zhang N.

, 2014) believes working in the cities makes rural migrant women more experienced and to have

more information about the cities and the labour market, and their opinions are valued more by

their family members, which allows them to have greater involvement in decision-making on

various matters in the family; in one mind (Zhang, Gao, & Li, 2013, p. 51) argues “Wives enjoy

more economic decision-making rights after migration.” There has also been a growing

incidence in female-headed households in rural China (Economic and Social Development

Department of the FAO, 1995) which it argues needs to be reflected in reflected in agriculture,

land tenure and population policies. Female headed families because when men move to the

cities and leave their families behind, this changes the perceived role of men as the head of the

family. It also gives women power to make decision in the family with regards to farming and

land control.

China has seen significant number of people in the country moving from the rural areas to urban

areas since the 1980s to 2009, this form of migration has affected roles and labour perceived by

Chinese populace to be for men and women.

BibliographyAbdullahi, J., Shaibu-Imodagbe, E. M., Mohammed, F., Sa’id, A., & Idris , U. D. (2009). Rural – Urban

Migration of the Nigerian Work Populace and Climate Change Effects on Food Supply: A Case Study of Kaduna City in Northern Nigeria. Fifth Urban Symposium 2009, 1-16.

Chan, K. W. (2012). China, Internal Migration. The Encyclopedia of Global Migration, 1-17.

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Chan, K., Liu, T., & Yang, Y. (1999). Hukou and Non-hukou, Migrations in China: Comparisons and Contrasts. International Journal of Population Geography Vol.5, 425-448.

Congressional-Executive Commission on China. (2005, October 7). CHINA’S HOUSEHOLD REGISTRATION SYSTEM: Sustained Reform Needed to Protect China’s Rural Migrants. Retrieved from Congressional-Executive Commission on China: http://www.cecc.gov/sites/chinacommission.house.gov

Davin, D. (1996). Gender and Rural-Urban Migration in China. Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1 [Urban Development], 24-30.

Economic and Social Development Department of the FAO. (1995, November). FAO Organisation. Retrieved from FAO Web site: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0252e/x0252e04.htm

Education Services Australia . (2013). Internal migration within China . Geogspace: Illustration 4 For teachers and students F-10.

Fan, C. C. (2003). Rural-Urban Migration and Gender Division of Labour in Transitional China. International Journal of Urban and Rural Research Vol. 27, Issue. 1, 24-47.

Hu, X. (2012, January 4). Migration Policy Institute Organisation. Retrieved from Migration Policy Web site: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/ARTICLE/CHINAS-YOUNG-RURAL-URBAN-MIGRANTS-SEARCH-FORTUNE-HAPPINESS-AND-INDEPENDENCE

Knapp, J., Muller, B., & Quiros, A. (2009). Women, Men, and the Changing Role of Gender in Immigration. Institute for Latino Studies Vol.3, Issue 3 , 1-14.

Mitra, A., & Murayama, M. (2008). Rural to Urban Migration: A District Level Analysis for India. IDE Discussion Paper No.137, 1-33.

Niño-Zarazúa , M., & Addison, T. (2012). Redefining Poverty in China and India. Tokyo : United Nations University Office of Communications.

Saracoglu, S., & Roe, T. L. (2004, April). Rural-Urban Migration and Economic Growth in Developing Countries. Ankara, Turkey.

UNESCO . (2000, February). UNESCO Organisation. Retrieved from UNESCO web site: http://www.unesco.org/education/mebam/module_5.pdf

Yang , X. (2014). Rural–urban migration and mental and sexual health: a case study in Southwestern China. Health Psychol Behav Med Vol.2 (1), 1-15.

Zhang, C., Gao, Q., & Li, X. (2013). The Impact of Rural-urban Migration on Gender Relations in Chinese Households. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 19:1, 39-64.

Zhang, N. (2014). Performing identities: Women in rural–urban migration in contemporary China. Geoforum 54, 17-27.

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Importance of Gender Issues in today’s Development Agenda “in the process of

Urbanization”

We live in the world faced by severe global environmental issues today than ever, a world

characterized by problems of climate change, pollution, global warming, exponential population

growth and urbanization just to mention a few. These problems arise from various factors and

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inequalities19; these factors and inequalities are born in pursuit of development. It is important to

consider factors and inequalities or issues like gender in the development agenda of today if we

are to achieve a desired development by all, which is a sustainable one. In peace with this, (UN

Sustainable Development , 2016) argues that gender equality is not only a fundamental human

right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

The center of interest of this essay is to fulfill and comment on the importance of considering

gender issues in the development agenda today, pointedly in the urbanization process. The World

Development Report in (World Bank, 2012) defines gender as socially constructed norms and

ideologies which determine the behavior and actions of men and women.

Urbanization is the process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated

in relatively small areas, forming cities20. In agreement, urbanization is the increasing in the

number of people that live in urban areas, it predominantly results in the physical growth of

urban areas. According to (United Nations Population Fund, 2015), the world is undergoing the

largest wave of urban growth in history. More than half of the world’s population now lives in

towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. Much of this

urbanization will unfold in Africa and Asia, bringing huge social, economic and environmental

transformations. (OECD, 2015) maintains that gender equality matters in its own right is a

prerequisite for the health and development of families and societies, and a driver of economic

growth.

According to (Masika, de Haan, & Baden, 1997, p. 5), “the urbanization process is itself shaped

by gender roles and relations. For instance the scale and nature of migration into urban areas in

Latin America is much influenced by decisions in rural households about who should migrate

and for what reason, by constraints placed on women’s work outside the home by households,

and by the demand for female labour in urban areas, (Chant 1992)”. One of the factors

contributing to urbanization is rural-urban migration, increased industrialization, education for

all ‘women’, poverty in rural areas make people to move to urban centers with the hope of

greener pastures there.

19 Factors like industrialization, promotion of economic development at the expense of the environment, improved medicinal services that prolong life and inequalities in the form of gender and income distribution.20See more at: http://water.tkk.fi/wr/tutkimus/glob/publications/Haapala/pdf-files/URBANIZATION.pdf Accessed 22 April 2016 and https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/urbanization.htm Accessed 22 April 2016

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Urbanization provides more opportunities to advance economically and socially. Female

migration UN (1995) in (Masika, de Haan, & Baden, 1997, p. 5) “is increasing despite the

constraints of women’s dependent position within the family and society, as households are in

need of income, and more employment opportunities are available to women”. Urban sex ratios

usually show more women than men and levels of female household headship are higher in

urban than rural areas21. In Botswana and Argentina, (Chant & Mcilwaine, 2013) states that older

old’ women outnumber their male counterparts by nearly two to one, while in Malaysia the ratio

is almost 1.5 to one. In one voice, (Mcilwaine & Willis, 2014) argues that a critical aspect of

migration is the dynamics of the selectivity of long-term or permanent rural-urban movement in

Middle America, “the dominance of women in rural urban migration is partly a function of the

juxtaposition of declining productive possibilities for women in the countryside and relatively

greater income earning opportunities in towns, page 37.” In urban centers, for women in

particular; accessing the increased social, economic, and political opportunities ostensibly

available to them in cities can be ‘in reality’ incredibly difficult to take advantage of22.

& Satterthwaite , 2013, p. 3)Urbanization is associated with greater changes in physical

landscape, socioeconomic life and offers greater opportunities to improve lives; it has a bad a

side. Urbanization promotes inequalities (gender and financial) and to some extend worsens

problems like poverty, pollution and environmental degradation. Agreeably, (United Nation

Organisation, 2009, p. 2 of 17) states that “rapid urbanization in most of the developing world

has also resulted in stark inequalities between the rich and the poor, environmental degradation

and growing numbers of slum dwellers.” These changes or inequalities and problems impact

women and girls more than they do men and boys. Men and boys are most likely to survive

urban life changes than women and girls; understanding this (Denisiuk, 2004)23 with

evolutionary psychology sex and gender differences are viewed as dependent on reproduction

and changes that occur are biologically as people adapt to changes in the environment; and in

social structural theory, sex and gender differences are viewed as influenced socially by roles of

men and women. According to (Tacoli & Satterthwaite , 2013, p. 3) “most urban women

21Kerala with 1084 females for every 1000 males has the highest sex ratio according to Census of India http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/sex-ratio-of-india.html Accessed 22 April 2016 22 See more at: http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/gender-urbanization-and-democratic-governance#sthash.F2JdAgrX.dpuf Accessed 23 April 2016 23 See more at:http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/denisiuk.html Accessed 23 April 2016

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experience profound disadvantages compared to men in their daily lives.” (United Nation

Organisation, 2009) contends that while urbanization offers many benefits, the ugly face of

urbanization is urban poverty, which often has the most severe impact on women and girls. The

world’s 828 million slum dwellers in cities24 suffer in varying degrees from poor sanitation,

inadequate access to clean water, crime, unemployment, threats of evictions, overcrowding and

poor quality housing; women make a significant number of these slum dwellers and are there are

more female headed households in these slums.  Congruently (The Cities Allience, 2016) argue

that “more and more slum households are headed by women. Many are women with children

whose husbands have left them behind to look for work elsewhere. In other cases, women have

fled to the slums to escape domestic violence, discrimination in rural areas, or difficult situations

created by divorce or marital disputes”25. Women in cities often suffer disproportionately, not

only because they are, on average, poorer than men26, but often also because they experience

greater difficulty in accessing resources and services tailored to their needs, and decision-making

opportunities.

For women, urbanization will be able them to join wage-earning labor force, and (Tacoli &

Satterthwaite , 2013) argues that urbanization is often associated with greater independence and

opportunity for women. These are better opportunities than in rural areas, they offer women an

opportunity to engage in paid employment outside the family, better access to services, lower

fertility rates, and some relaxation of the rigid social values and norms that define women as

subordinated to their husbands and fathers and to men generally. But also, urbanization is

associated with high risks of violence and constraints on employment, mobility and leadership

that reflect deep gender based inequalities in urban centers. (Iyenda, 2005, p. 63) analysis of

gender relations in the context of household survival in Kinshasa27 has shown the importance of

giving women and especially young girls, access to adequate support in their efforts to

participate in development and in obtaining the purchasing power to buy what they need for their

households; goes on to argues that the promotion of gender equality in household management

and decision making should be an important goal in order to increase the involvement of women

24 UN-HABITAT (2009) Global Urban Observatory25 More at http://www.citiesalliance.org/About-slum-upgradingAccessed27April2016 26 Three-fifths of the world’s one billion poorest people are women and girls, more from UNDP (2006) Taking Gender Equality Seriously.27 Largest city and capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, http://www.britannica.com/place/Kinshasa Accessed 26 April 2016

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in urban development. In agreement to violence and gender linkages in urban areas, (Chant &

Mcilwaine, 2013) denote that urban women across the world have been identified by the World

Health Organization as being at particular risk of gender-based violence, which, in turn, was a

major factor in UN-HABITAT’s and UNIFEM’s joint establishment in 2009 of the Global

Programme on Safe Cities Free from Violence Against28. Goes on to say that according to UN-

HABITAT (2006), together with other forms of urban violence, domestic violence makes women

twice as likely as men to suffer acts of aggression29.

Gender issues are an important element in the environmental problems like urbanization the

world is facing today which are often at the forefront of development. Women use the

environment more than their man counterparts do, this is because women are the ones in

households responsible for daily chores like collecting firewood, cooking, and botanical and

vegetable gardens and selling in the streets. It then can then be argued that women are the major

key actors in caring and degrading of the environment. The migration of men to urban areas has

resulted in the growing incidence in female-headed households in rural China. This event of

rural-urban migration which is ‘fundamental’ to urbanization affects gender roles and duties,

especially women than men. Women in these cases are left behind by their husbands to urban

centers leaving them with all household responsibilities, including those like farming which are

often perceived to be outside women circle of duties. (Economic and Social Development

Department of the FAO, 1995) argues that “this needs to be reflected in agriculture, land tenure

and population policies”, as it affects agricultural production; in either a positive or negative

way.

Gender is therefore an important consideration in development, gender analysis is a way of

looking at how social norms and power structures impact on the lives and opportunities available

to different groups of men and women. Given that globally more women than men live in

poverty, including urban poverty and that women are also less likely than men to receive basic

education, to be appointed to a political position nationally and internationally; and

understanding that men and women, boys and girls experience urban poverty and poverty in

28 See (UN-HABITAT, 2010, p. 13) http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=2887 Accessed 24 April 2016 29 “Indeed, the rate of physical and/or sexual violence against ever-married women aged 15-49 years in Indian cities ranges from 15% in Delhi to as much as 41% in Chennai, and with levels commonly being twice as high in slums than in non-slum areas Gupta et al, 2009:62 in (Chant & Mcilwaine, 2013).

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general differently and face different barriers in accessing services, economic resources and

political opportunities in urban areas helps to target interventions. (Kangas, Haider, & Fraser,

2014) in agreement argues that acknowledging and incorporating these gender inequalities into

programs and analyses is therefore extremely important, both from a human rights perspective

and to maximize impact and socioeconomic development. (Tacoli C. , 2013) "Urbanization is

among the defining features of current times, but it can mean very different things for men and

women. Unless policymakers, urban planners and development agencies understand these

differences, urbanization will fail to meet its potential to improve the lives of all urban citizens."

quoting the journal's guest editor Cecilia Tacoli of the International Institute for Environment

and Development.

BibliographyChant, S., & Mcilwaine, C. (2013, June 4). Gender, Urban Development and the Politics of Space.

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Denisiuk, J. S. (2004). Evolutionary Versus Social Structural Explanations for Sex Differences in Mate Preferences, Jealousy, and. Personality Research Organisation.

Economic and Social Development Department of the FAO. (1995, November). FAO Organisation. Retrieved from FAO Web site: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0252e/x0252e04.htm

Iyenda, G. (2005). Street enterprises, urban livelihoods and poverty in Kinshasa. Environment & Urbanization Vol 17 No 2, 55-67.

Kangas, A., Haider, H., & Fraser, E. (2014). Gender: Topic Guide. Revised edition with E. Browne. Birmingham: GSDRC, 1-149. Birmingham, United Kingdom: University of Birmingham.

Masika, R., de Haan, A., & Baden, S. (1997). Urbanisation and Urban Poverty: A Gender Analysis [Report No 54]. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies: BRIDGE (development - gender).

Mcilwaine, C., & Willis, K. (2014). Challenges and Change in Middle America: Perspectives on Development in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Abington: Routledge.

OECD. (2015). Gender equality and women’s rights in the post-2015 agenda: A foundation for sustainable development. OECD AND Post-2015 Reflections: Element 3, Paper 1, pp. 1-16.

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Tacoli, C. (2013, April 10). Urbanization: A double-edged sword for women. London, United Kingdom. Retrieved from International Institute for Environment and Development Web site.

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UN Sustainable Development . (2016, April 22). UN News Centre. Retrieved from United Nations Organisation: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/

UN-HABITAT. (2010). Gender Equality for Smater Cities: Challenges and Progress. Nairobi: UN-HABITAT.

United Nation Organisation. (2009). Retrieved from United Nations Web site : http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/urban/downloads/WomenWatch_Gender_Equality_and_Sustainable_Urbanisation-fact_sheet.pdf

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Gender Disparities in Accessing Urban Employment and Housing and the bearing

of this on Equitable Access and Social Justice in Democratic Republic of Congo

(DRC)

Gender disparities in access to employment and housing are not only characteristic to rural areas,

there pertinent to urban centers. According to (Benschop, 2004)30, exclusion of women from land

and property in rural areas has pushed many into the slums of urban areas, contributing to the

rise in woman headed households among the urban poor. “Land and housing are economic

resources that also bring social benefits and improved status to those who own, control or have

access to them” maintains (Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE),

2009). Similarly, (Chant & Mcilwaine, 2013) argues that gender gaps remain significant in urban

labor markets in respect of the occupations in which women and men are engaged and on what

basis, notably ‘formal’ or ‘informal’, part-time or full-time.

(Filmer, King, & Pritchett, 1997) defined gender disparities as purely descriptive observation of

different outcomes between males and females. Employment as defined by (Kaufman, 2004) is

work that is performed under contractual arrangements and that involves material rewards.

Rawls in (Robinson, 2016) defined social justice as assurance to the protection of equal access to

liberties, rights, and opportunities, as well as taking care of the least advantaged members of

society.

In a country famously endowed with riches almost beyond belief, “the Democratic Republic of

Congo is potentially one of the richest countries on earth, but colonialism, slavery and corruption

have turned it into one of the poorest”, historian Dan Snow quoted in BBC Magazine 31. (Davis,

Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014) argue that the vast majority of the population in the DRC are

desperately poor, and women are the poorest of all despite the fact that the country is currently

enjoying economic growth. This essay seeks to bring to light the gender disparities in accessing

urban employment and housing and the bearing of this on equitable access and social justice in

the Democratic Republic of Congo.

30 A paper presented at the UN-Habitat Commission on Sustainable Development, 22 April 2004.31See more at http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24396390 Accessed 25 April 2016

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Despite the DRC’s riches, the country lacks equitable distribution of access to resources and

capital32. According to (AfDB, OECD, UNDP & UNECA, 2012), the proportion of women

unable to undertake an economic activity for lack of resources is put at 44% against 22% for men

in the DRC. The distribution of jobs is marked by deep disparities between the sexes. Women

occupy only 2.8% of waged jobs, which are concentrated in farming, the informal sector and

commerce. “Women in DRC, particularly poor women have little financial autonomy” maintains

(Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014, p. 30). In South Kivu33 where the main economic activities

are agriculture, mining, commerce and international trade. Women are generally perceived to

participate in these activities, particularly commerce; in a marginal, informal way and in the

trade sector where women often work as petty vendors, (Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014). In

the areas surveyed in South Kivu, verifying this (Global Witness, 2012) upholds that those

coming from other areas to work in mines or related activities were primarily male between 60%

and 70 %.

The trade sector is not regulated and women have no legal protection, social security or any other

benefits. They are also subjected to a high level of official and unofficial taxation. In Kinshasa34,

women traders appear to have been hit particularly hard, including physically, by police efforts

to ‘clean up the streets.’ With accordance to the series of abuses faced by women in mining

sector, (Côté, 2014) found out that body searches are carried out by men, often in public view,

after every work shift with the aim of preventing women hiding gold in their clothes. Cheating

and other scams practiced by men are other widespread forms of discrimination against women.

Artisanal and small scale mining35 is another sector of employment which is an important part of

South Kivu’s economy, attracting workers driven by poverty from rural areas. Women in the

mining sector in South Kivu do not have access to the same opportunities as men according to

(Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014, p. 32). Paying attention to artisanal mining, according to

(Fraser Institute, 2012) it is often characterized by; operations without legal mining titles or a

32 Which can be attributed to two decades of civil war and ongoing conflicts throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)33 South Kivu is a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its capital is Bukavu. 34 Largest city (with a population of 5 million) and capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa is the center of the dynamic and contradictory influences that have shaped the country’s character in modern Africa. More at: http://www.britannica.com/place/Kinshasa Accessed 26 April 2016 35 Artisanal and Small-scale mining refers to informal mining activities carried out using low technology or with minimal machinery. See more at: http://www.miningfacts.org/communities/what-is-artisanal-and-small-scale-mining/#sthash.FZj8sbam.dpuf Accessed 25 April 2016

16

valid contract with the title holder, low productivity since this mining often takes place in very

small plots, it is limited to surface mining, and uses inefficient techniques, lack of safety

measures, health care or environmental protections, are practised seasonally36 and associated

with economic insecurity.

Women occupied in this form of mining are involved in a range of activities, including mining

but are often excluded due to traditional superstitions. Bushi women are not accepted in mining

areas as they are believed to bring bad luck, contends (Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014).

Women are more usually engaged, in supporting activities such as washing, sorting materials,

and transportation, which are less profitable goes on (Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014). Women

also work in the camps around the mines in restaurants, hotels, small businesses, and as sex

workers. While everyone in the mine sector is exposed to various risks, women, girls and boys

are particularly vulnerable; in South Kivu they are exposed to coercion, intimidation, sexual

violence, HIV/AIDS, abuses and exploitation.

In Bas Congo37, women are involved in tending small scale plots, the income that women

generate is vital for feeding and housing the family. Yet she pays her husband rent from the land

she farms, pays for education, food and health care. What the man does with ‘his money’ is up to

him, but he is not meant to put it towards the family’s needs and in Equateur this pattern is

repeated, observed (Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014). This is all despite the less paying

employment a woman has and the high salaried jobs men do in mining and agriculture in the

town. The gender disparity in the access to employment in Bas Congo subjects women to

violence. According to (Davis, Fabbri, & Alphonse, 2014), customs say that the man is the chief

with the legitimate right to take decisions, the wife is the cashier, and the husband is the

manager. If she does anything without the husband’s authorisation, she will be beaten up and

men contend that the money belongs to them.

The agricultural sector is one of the main sectors of activity for women in Bas Congo. Land use

in DRC is regulated and managed by the structures that are attached to cultural values and

36 supplement farm incomes37 Or Kongo Central, one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bas Congo is blessed with proven oil reserves, industries, transport infrastructure, mineral in resource deposits and agro-pastoral province (agriculture which employs almost 70% of the population of the Province) reports the World Bank, more at http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and Operations/DRC_Etude%20decentralisation_english__01.pdf Accessed 25 April 2016

17

strongly dominated by males38. This has an impact on women, especially for their access to land

which they use as source of income. Women in Bas Congo cannot grow a tree because this

would signify she owns the land. Although many families depend on the products women are

able to grow on tiny pieces of land, women rarely own the land. Some women entrepreneurs set

up small scale businesses that play and important part in the local economy, such as the centres

de transformation in Bas Congo. In terms of property and acquisition, women rarely have the

financial resources required to buy land, they face challenges inheriting it and may be prohibited

from buying land under the terms of the Code de famille39, if applied.

Women can rent land, often without formal contract. In some cases, if the land becomes

productive, the landowner may bar women from continuing usage. In other cases, women and

their children can be hired as casual labour in large plantations. They usually come from families

that have no land, have little bargaining power, and are poorly paid. In other cases, they perform

some work for a landowner and in exchange are given a plot of land that they can cultivate for

themselves. This practice has become particularly exploitative as often women are requested to

perform a variety of unpaid chores for the landowner, such as fetching water and washing

clothes.

(UNEP, 2001) assert that in the DRC, security of tenure40 is also complicated by disparities

between modern legislation and traditional laws. For example, the DRC’s 1973 Land Act

stipulated that ‘land is the exclusive inalienable and imprescriptible property of the state’, but the

acquisition of land remains subject to the consent of the land chief.

Discriminatory laws and social norms are also a barrier to female entrepreneurship in the DRC

asserts (Durand , 2010); “female entrepreneurs receive different treatment relative to men with

respect to access to institutions and credit, property rights, taxation, and their ability to start a

business. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, women cannot purchase property, sign contracts

or incorporate businesses without their husband’s authorization (Durand , 2010, p. 18).”

38 A dual system comprised of national laws and traditional power structures. The traditional chiefs play a key role in the allocation and management of land39 Translated ‘Family Code’ in English40 Security of tenure means the rights you have as occupier of your home, and is largely determined by the type of agreement you have, more at : http://www.hackney.gov.uk/Assets/Documents/h-private-security-tenure.pdf Accessed 26 April 2016

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Housing is critical to women not only because their domestic roles require them to spend

considerable time in the home, but also because it serves as a key resource in their social,

psychological and economic well-being and security41 (Chant & Mcilwaine, 2013). There are

poor housing conditions in DRC cities, families are not afforded adequate shelter and they are

led by women who then again do not earn much. In Kinshasa, many families ‘female headed’

pack themselves into one house or compound resulting in overcrowding, facilitating the spread

of disease and the destruction of the environment. The average rent for one house in poor areas is

US$ 55 per month and many street-vendor households occupy only one bedroom. Given the low

literacy rate for women in Kinshasa42, many of them are excluded from the formal employment

market, and so women find themselves obliged to work on their own and in many cases on the

streets because they lack qualifications for formal employment or any form of wage labor states

(Iyenda, 2005).

Gender disparities have contributed significantly to social injustice, made women more

exploitable, vulnerable and subjected women to poverty and violence. According to (Mbambi,

Claire, & Kele , 2010, p. 10) “women of the big Congo River Basin, are objectified and

dehumanized by violence and poverty maintained by a system of oppression and exploitation

that uses militarism, retrograde patriarchy, violent masculinity and misogyny.” Head held high

using the post-modernist theory43, my position is that, despite many years of development and

modernity, women in the DRC are still marginalized and not liberated; women have to be

liberalized and afforded equal opportunities as men so they can realize their potential. In spite of

the weak female economic power due to several factors such as poverty, the lack of access to

lands, lack of estate property, lack of access to appropriate technologies, women marginalization

in the macro-economic sector, as well as insecurity in rural areas following armed conflicts,

Congolese women are true agents of development and their small income generating activities

have been significantly contributing to the survival of their families and the whole DRC as a

nation , states (Mbambi, Claire, & Kele , 2010).

41 (Miraftab, 2001)42 51% against 66% for men43 Brian Duignan defines it as a philosophical movement which is largely a reaction against the philosophical assumptions and values of the modern period of Western history. It characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power. see http://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy Accessed 28 April 2016

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