Unit 5: Gender and Economy

1. Unit 5: Gender and Economy

2. Changing Livelihood Strategies – Changing Labour Market Prospects

3. Background to Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches • Developed in response to dissatisfaction with the RESULTS of development efforts • Not INVENTED • EVOLVED from the late 1980s through the 1990s (and still evolving)

4. Contributions to the development of SLA • Country work by OXFAM and WORLD BANK on characterisation of the poor • Experience of wide-range of NGOs & CBOs, bi- & multi-lateral agencies, informing researchers • Work by ROBERT CHAMBERS and GORDAN CONWAY on RURAL LIVELIHOODS • Work by AMARTYA SEN on ENTITLEMENTS

5. Approaches contributing to the development of SLA • PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES to development • FARMING SYSTEMS RESEARCH • Recognition of some of the limitations in MICRO-FINANCE • New approaches to MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS of POVERTY (including by IFAD) Slide 3 Background of Sustainable Livelihoods

6. H Vulnerability Context Shocks Seasonality Trends Changes N Policies Institutions Processes S Livelihood Strategies Livelihood Outcomes The Poor influence P F DFID’s SL Framework

7. DFID’s SL Principles • People-centred • Sustainability-focused • Holistic • Implemented in partnership • Linking the micro with the macro • Dynamic • Building on the strengths of the poor

8. Choosing alternative livelihood strategy • determined by human and other assets • low level of education • Unequal distribution of physical and natural assets • Lack of adequate infrastructure • Lack of trust in social organizations • Lack of economic variation and market linkages

9. Livelihood strategies Livelihood strategies are adopted irrespective of caste, ethnicity and to some extent gender except some specific ones - tailoring, shoe making, jewellery making, weaving/knitting. Agriculture and livestock is most common among all castes, ethnic groups including men and women New generation migrating (1/3 population is in village in community 5).

10. Livelihood strategies….. • More women perceived that they have higher sensitivity and lower adaptive capacity - family decision making • Families from different caste/ethnic groups having same or similar livelihood strategies are more or less uniformly sensitive. • Families from the same caste/ethnic groups having different livelihood strategies were differently sensitive to the impacts of climate change. • Agriculture tool maker is more sensitive to rainfall than jewellery maker who is more sensitive to ceremonies/festivals although they are brothers.

11. Findings • Women or Men in the same family are differently vulnerable if they had different livelihood strategies/occupation • such as working in agriculture, teacher and shop runner • Both men and women are uniformly vulnerable if they had same livelihood strategy(ies) • Among livelihood groups, dependent on agriculture and wage labour are more sensitive to climate variability than others

12. Findings • Some families of socially higher caste are more vulnerable than some families of socially lower caste • Sensitivity and adaptive capacity were also differentiated by the status (health, income, occupation) of his/her spouse • As youths are migrating out temporarily or for longer, their parents had to bear the greater burdens. However, vulnerability depended on the income/remittance • men's migration does not necessarily increase women's vulnerability

13. Pastoralist societies in Africa and the world over are faced with social, economic and environmental realities that are driving change and impacting their production system and way of life • IN ORDER TO “make ends meet”, that is, to sustain their households, • women employ various strategies, including income diversification- remittance • through participation in more than one income-generating activity, and • the involvement of children in income generation • CHANGE AFFECTS PEOPLE in different ways- having land and ownership

14. “survival strategy” approach, used extensively for analyzing people’s strategic responses to • economic crisis,5 is valuable for exploring the dynamic nature of the environment in which livelihood • decisions are made

15. Multiple Modes of Livelihood Approach • An alternative framework for understanding contemporary livelihood arrangements in urban areas is the “multiple modes of livelihood” (MML) approach. • The MML approach especially its focus on the relationship between macro-level processes and domestic units. • Intensification of other forms of earning a livelihood. “Livelihood system” refers to “the mix of individual and household strategies, developed over a given period of time, that seeks to mobilize available resources and opportunities” (Grown and Sebstad, 1989: 941), and it has many dimensions, including productive processes, reproduction, consumption, and social relations (Beall and Kanji, 1999

16. Economic situation • The percentage of people living below the international poverty line (people earning less than US$1.25 per day) has halved in only seven years. At this measure of poverty the percentage of poor people declined from 53.1 percent in 2003/2004 to 24.8 percent in 2010/2011. With a higher poverty line of US$2 dollars per-capita per day, poverty declined by one quarter to 57.3 percent.

18. Changing Labor Market Prospects • Labour migration presents both challenges and opportunities in a globalized world today. • Women migrants- 1960 had 46.8% • and in 2007- 49.6% (UN 2007)

19. Gender and economic power • All human beings, irrespective of gender, must have equal opportunities to seek out economic opportunities. • People access resources and livelihoods for survival and sustenance. But beyond • that, economic power helps them acquire capabilities that enlarge choices for satisfying and creative lives. • This is the promise of human development

20. Why does discrimination occur in the labour market? • The 'Taste' Model (Gary Becker) - Discrimination arises here because employers and workers have a  distaste for working with people from different ethnic backgrounds or final customers dislike buying goods from salespeople from different races i.e. people prefer to associate with others from their own group. They are willing to pay a price to avoid contact with other groups. With reference to race, this is equivalent to racial prejudice. • Employer ignorance – Discrimination arises because employers are unable to directly observe the productive ability of individuals and therefore easily observable characteristics such as gender or race may be used as proxies – the employer through ignorance or prejudice assumes that certain groups of workers are less productive than others and is therefore less willing to employ them, or pay them a wage or salary that fairly reflects their productivity, experience and applicability for a particular job. • Occupational crowding effects – Females and minorities may be crowded into lower paying occupations

24. Gender INEQUALITIES

26. Gender Inequality Index

27. Gender Development Index • The Gender-related Development Index (GDI) is a composite indicator of gender equality, developed by the United Nations (UN). It is one of the five indicators used by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report(UNDP). It aims to show the inequalities between men and women in the following areas: long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living Eg:- • HDI Country 1995 2000 2005 2008 2011 Rank • 97 Sri Lanka 0.473 .. 0.447 .. 0.419 • 157 Nepal 0.724 0.680 0.665 .. 0.558 • 172 Afghanistan .. .. 0.709 .. 0.707

28. What is a labor force • the labor force of a country (or other geographic entity) consists of everyone of working age (typically above a certain age (around 14 to 16) and below retirement (around 65) who are participating workers, that is people actively employed or seeking employment

29. Formal and informal labor • Informal labor in the world • Informal labor and gender • Agricultural and non-agricultural labor • Agriculture and gender • Paid and unpaid labor • Unpaid labor and gender

30. Labor Market Discrimination • The definition of Labor Market Discrimination is: • It exists when 2 equally qualified individuals are treated differently solely on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, disability, etc.

31. Feedback effects of labor market discrimination Faced with labor market discrimination that lowers the returns to human capital investments, women have less incentive to undertake them. Women’s economic outcomes are therefore adversely affected both directly and indirectly by labor market discrimination.

32. Feedback Effects Gender Division of Labor in the Family Gender Differences in Labor Market Outcomes

33. Similarities & Differences in Characteristics of Male & Female Full-Time Workers Men and women have similar amounts of education. Men have more full-time experience and women have more part-time experience. Men are more likely to be in blue-collar jobs and to work in mining, construction, or durable manufacturing. Women are more likely to be in clerical or professional jobs and to work in the service industry.

35. Feed Back • If such behavior is encountered it is only logical that those being affected by this labor market discrimination view the returns on human capital investment to be lower • Consequently they will have less incentive to invest in human capital

36. Feed Back • Furthermore, if this “feed-back” is widely spread such as to be “known” by younger individuals it could even lead to many dropping out of school or not pursuing higher education or advanced degrees

37. Glass Ceiling • In 1991 as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 21 member committee was formed and chaired by the Labor secretary to determine if there was a “glass ceiling” in the upper management of American firms

38. Glass Ceiling • In terms of the findings of the commission • There is a glass ceiling and the derives from three sources: • Societal/Non-Market • Business • Government

39. Glass Ceiling • In terms of those reasons under the control of business are: • Outreach and recruitment practices that do not seek out or reach or recruit minorities and women • Corporate climates that alienate and isolate minorities and women • Pipeline Barriers that directly affect opportunity for advancement • Initial placement and clustering in staff jobs or in highly technical and professional jobs that are not on the career track to the top

40. Glass Ceiling • In terms of those reasons under the control of business are (continuation): • Lack of mentoring • Lack of management training • Lack of opportunities for career development, tailored training, and rotational job assignments that are on the revenue-producing side of the business

41. Glass Ceiling • In terms of those reasons under the control of business are (continuation): • Little or no access to critical develop mental assignments such as memberships on highly visible task forces and committees • Special or different standards for performance evaluation

42. Glass Ceiling • In terms of those reasons under the control of business are (continuation): • Biased rating and testing systems • Little or no access to informal net-works of communication • Counterproductive behavior and harassment by colleagues

43. Glass Ceiling • In terms of those reasons under the control of government are: • Lack of vigorous, consistent monitoring and law enforcement • Weaknesses in the formulation and collection of employment-related data which makes it difficult to ascertain the status of groups at the managerial level and to disaggregate the data • Inadequate reporting and dissemination of information relevant to glass ceiling issues

44. Measuring Discrimination • However, measuring discrimination is not that simple • For instance, • Looking at only wages does not represent the true level of discrimination since it is likely that personal characteristics may account for some of that disparity

45. Gender inequalities :- eg from europe Violence against women and pay gaps: most important inequalities according to Europeans 45

46. B. Gender inequalitiesSignificant variations exist between countries: violence is the leading issue in 12 Member States In your opinion, which of the gender inequalities in the following list are the most important? First? And then ? (3 ANSWERS MAXIMUM) 46

47. The Overcrowding Model • The labor market exhibits SEGREGATION • Consequently: • Some jobs are male jobs other are female jobs • Some jobs are white jobs other are minority jobs

48. The Overcrowding Model • Assume that workers F and M (female and male) are perfect substitute for each other (i.e. they are homogenous) • Let the labor market be divided into two type of jobs. Job type F accounts for a quarter of the jobs available and job type M accounts for three quarters of the jobs available.

49. The Overcrowding Model • At first assume that both jobs on average pay the same wage. • Under this circumstances then we would have the following graph

50. Overcrowding Wage Wage Sfo Smo W0 W0 Df Dm Lf0 Labor Lm0 Labor F Occupations M Occupations Suppose that men and women are equally qualified for occupations F and M. Then the wages for those jobs will be the same (W0).