Women and Work: Contextualizing Female Workforce in India

I have always been intrigued by the trend in job opportunities for women in India. Growing up, some of the opportunities promoted by family would be medical and education fields. Times have changed, and now women are exploring newer fields like engineering and information and communication technology. However, the labour reports show trends that are devasting in terms of the participation of women in the Indian workforce.  The Oxfam India's Discrimination Report 2022 blames "societal and employers' prejudices" for women's lower wages, and non-participation in economic activity. Pearson argued in her article Reassessing Paid Work and Women’s empowerment: Lesson’s from the Global Economy that just the evidence of income cannot be related to the idea of “empowerment” of women.

As a working woman myself, I have faced discrimination in workplace at various levels. I can recall an instance, where I was told “leave from work is not a right but privilege”. Which essentially means that your work contract may have assigned casual leaves, but it is not necessary that you receive those leaves. Fonderson’s idea of “regulation” and the normalization of power works effectively in the Indian context of female workforce.

The marginalization of female workforce does not happen only at the employer’s level, but also at the societal level. The Oxfam Labor Report 2022 states "The inequality for women and other social categories is not just due to poor access to education or work experience but because of discrimination.". The Indian society has struggled with caste bias for ages, and the 2022 report shows that the bias still exists, despite of multiple policy changes at the government level. According to the report, the Dalit (lower caste) and Muslim (minority) women are the most marginalized groups. The report looked at government data on jobs, wages, health and access to agricultural credit among various social groups from 2004 to 2020 and used statistical models to quantify discrimination. They found that on an average men earned 4,000 rupees ($50; £44) more than women, non-Muslims earned 7,000 rupees more than Muslims and those at the dalit and tribespeople made 5,000 rupees less compared to others.

The wage gap oppresses women dually, one based on gender and the other based on their identity as a dalit or a Muslim woman. The other area which affects the regression in  female work force, is female infanticide. Thousands of female foetuses are aborted annually in India, due to the societal belief that women are not a source of economic benefit to the family. Women are considered a liability, due to the dowry system that makes the family of women pay large sum of money to the man’s family. Due to the oppressive structures of Indian society, women are largely cut off from being part of this thriving country, either through female infanticide or through discrimination.

The need of the hour then is to not only focus on the inclusion of women within the workforce, but to create campaigns like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao ( Save a Girl, Educate a Girl) to function in tandem with economic structural changes and policies that aim at inclusion of women in the workforce. These campaigns are not effective in the current times as they are clouded by political agenda and are implemented in isolation.

References

Lairap-Fonderson, J. (2003). The disciplinary power of micro credit: Examples from Kenya and Cameroon.

Pearson, R. (2007). 16 Reassessing paid work and women's empowerment: lessons from the global. Feminisms in development: Contradictions, contestations and challenges, 201.

BDNews24, (2022). Women's participation in Indian workforce low due to gender discrimination: Oxfam

Post-Covid Money Empowerment: POS Trend in Nigeria

I participate in several professional alumni groups in Nigeria, and it's amazing to see how many initiatives for rural women's empowerment in Nigeria during the post-covid era have turned into a 'POS Trend'. I refer to it as a trend because it establishes a pattern for both the ‘empowerer’ (organization/giver) and the ‘empoweree’ (rural women/receiver). Even though women make up 50% of Nigeria's population, more than half of the country's 200 million residents live in rural areas and absolute poverty, with women accounting for 55% of these rural populations, and a high rate of unbanked poor who rely on using POS machines to access funds (Partnership for Economic Policy, 2011). As a result, rural women are becoming POS agents as a post-covid economic empowerment model by some NGOs, commercial banks, and even the Government. In terms of literacy, there is also a clear divide between women living in urban and rural areas.

                                                 Photo: Finance transaction at a Point of sales terminal

POS stands for point of sales (POS) terminals and avenues for women to launch new endeavors. Due to the rising number of people using digital finance in Nigeria, the POS is used as a mobile bank where customers can debit and credit monies using a mobile bank agent who manages the mobile device. In other words, the 'empowerers' assume that positioning rural women as point-of-sale (POS) agents encourages financial inclusion among women in Nigeria given how Covid-19 has adversely affected the lives of rural women. However, the assumption is silent regarding the risk of financial loss, stringent rules, and regulations some rural women may encounter while working as POS agents, as well as the physical risk associated with large sums of cash stored in unsecured terminals. Because poverty is regarded as the core cause of women's lack of economic empowerment, this is strongly related to the WID method of equity and anti-poverty to bring women into development. As a result, income/money generation becomes the focus to address gender equality. Additionally, the POS empowerment model enables rural women to earn money from the commissions of mobile banking transactions as supplementary income for the family by providing point-of-sale terminals and access to working capital through microcredit initiatives. It's interesting to highlight that while it's not the primary source of income but rather a secondary one, women may indirectly still rely on patriarchal institutional or economic systems to survive. I believe that POS may not be able to promote women's participation in the financial market due to a lack of women's preparedness, financial skills, and knowledge gaps, despite its endeavor to integrate rural women into the digital banking industry through informal pathways. Furthermore, the microcredit scheme is necessary for POS businesses to get off the ground.

                                                       Photo: A POS mobile device and an ATM card

In Nigeria, microcredit is synonymous with poverty alleviation, with rural women being the traditional targets and most vulnerable groups impacted by issues like geography, cultural norms, gender relations, unpaid work, and more. But the terms microfinance and microcredit are sometimes used synonymously. The Central Bank of Nigeria's regulatory laws and the top-down directives of the federal government to expand the availability of financial services for low-income communities through savings, loans, insurance, etc. are the main drivers of microfinance in Nigeria (Partnership for Economic Policy, 2011). While informal as well as formal organizations may be involved in microcredit, which consists of small loans for those who are below the poverty line. A type of microfinance is POS digital finance, and several contemporary microcredit programs in Nigeria are frequently governed by official regulatory frameworks for microfinance. Too much information! I know. As I write this, I feel puzzled as well, attempting to find where development and empowerment lie. Well, I'm not here to deduce if the POS business is a good or bad post-covid women's empowerment intervention; I'm just here to blog. 

As was noted in the most recent class discussion, I believe microcredit programs have both advantages and disadvantages. Some benefits include giving women economic power, helping to feed households and meet basic needs, developing women’s power, encouraging networking among women, raising women's work skills, and creating opportunities at the grassroots level. Although the programs may not be perfect, restructuring them may improve the outcomes for women. Contrarily, some disadvantages discussed in class included a lack of consideration for the economic system's flaws, regulated rules/policies, restrictions/time constraints, silence over gendered scheme aspects, a deepening of gender inequality, and a strengthening of subordination because income generation is insufficient as an additional source of income and is not always the main source of income. This could also be seen as a component of western imperialism.

I'll wrap up with an insightful video below of Nigeria's Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which has been dubbed Africa's largest microcredit scheme in 2020. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this article.

Note- I coined the word ‘empoweree’ as the opposite of empowerer in this article’s context not a word in a dictionary unlike empowerer (one who, or that which, empowers).

 

References

GEEP Nigeria. (2020, August 5). Africa’s largest microcredit scheme.  [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/eITtJmHKzV0

 Partnership for Economic Policy. (2011). Supporting Women’s empowerment through microcredit in rural Nigeria. https://www.pep-net.org/sites/pep-net.org/files/typo3doc/pdf/promotionnal_material/info-pep/Impact_Poster_Nigeria.pdf

BEING A MAN IS TOUGH: THE MALE IDENTITY CRISIS

 It is quite interesting how we fight for the total elimination of the stereotypes associated with females with no or little concern of the stereotypes associated with males. Most often than not, when we think of men, we think of providers, protectors, fixers and very strong and fearless beings and all these mental attributes translates into reality where they come with huge expectations. We can admit to the fact that not enough is done when masculinity and the mental health of men is concerned.

The perception society has towards the male identity had made it difficult for men to partake in therapies or even express their emotions for the fear of being judged or seen as weak. The modern society encourages men to talk about their mental health and release the emotional burden, however this same society views men through the lens of masculine norms hence they are expected to be the protector, to be strong and man up always because 'a true man cannot cry nor show his weaknesses'. For stereotypical toxic masculinity expressions as these, many men perceive death as a means to end their pain instead of opening up, and this is mainly due to the fear of  being seen as vulnerable. According to reports from the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2019, there were more than 700,000 people who died from suicide with men making more than half of this number (WHO, 2021).

Instead of trying to shape men to fit what patriarchal masculinity defines them to be, I believe it is important that men are given the space to explore, discover and define who they really are.

References

World Health Organization (2021). One in Every 100 Deaths is by suicides. Retrieved From: https://www.who.int/news/item/17-06-2021-one-in-100-deaths-is-by-suicide

HOW DO WE BRIDGE THE GENDER WAGE GAP; A CASE STUDY OF WAGE DISPARITE IN SOCCER

 Over the last decade, anti-poverty efforts in developing countries have shifted to a greater

emphasis on gender-based approaches, including attaining equality and inclusion through

gender-oriented program innovation. Even though much improvement has been made in

recent years, men continue to outnumber women in paid employment in almost every

developing country, with women working in more informal and precarious economic

positions than men. The readings from “Reassessing Paid Work and Women’s

Empowerment; Lessons from the Global Economy’’: the author spoked about how feminists

emphasized the importance of women’s paid employment. The author also highlighted on

how feminist tradition discussed women’s conditions of services in the job field especially

issues or concerns relating to “equal pay, opportunities for promotion training and

progression through the hierarchy, flexible hours and leave, protection of reproduction health,

freedom from harassment, appropriate non- wage benefit be recognized by both trade unions

and management’’(Pearson, Ruth. 2007).

The issue of unequal pay or pay discrimination, especially against women, is common in

soccer. This made me think about the lawsuit the U.S. women's national soccer team filed

against the U.S. Soccer Federation over pay discrimination. It is sad to know how equal work

results in unequal compensation. For instance, when the U.S. men's national team loses in a

friendly match, each player is paid $5000, while the women's team receives nothing for even

a draw. Similarly, when the men's team wins, they receive as much as $17,625, while the

women receive only $ 1,350.

Meanwhile, the women's team brings more glory in a competitive tournament for the nation

than the men. In 2011, when the women's team placed second in their world cup tournament,

they were awarded $1.8 million, which was shared equally among the 24 players, while the

men's team, who made it to the round of 16 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,

were awarded $5 million. In addition to this happening at the federation level, FIFA, which

oversees soccer, does not pay women the same as men. A classic example is Germany's men's

team, which won the 2014 World Cup. The team was awarded $35 million by FIFA, while

the women received only 5% of that for their women's world cup victory in 2015.

                             Source: Time

The controversy surrounding equal pay in soccer also illuminates various conceptions of fairness. Men's matches produce significantly more revenue than women's matches, which are frequently in the red. During a men's tournament, retailers are more likely to increase garden furniture sales, Barbeque accessories, and sunscreen. Men soccer players endure intense competition and must work harder to reach the top. The massive publicity also results in increased pressure. Some claim that the men's game is simply more appealing; they run quicker and are more potent than women, making their matches more intense.

Does this justify the huge salary discrepancy between male and female footballers, particularly on the national team?

How do we bridge that gap to ensure equity and fairness?

 

The Politics of Formal and Informal Work

  

Women contribute a lot to society, but they have always been cheated out of the reward that their work is worth. It is sad that oftentimes, it is said that women-led households are the poorest. If women are paid for their domestic work which is termed informal, then women will be better off financially. In most countries in Africa, women are tasked with the responsibility of taking care of the household, from fetching firewood, to getting water for household use, and feeding animals and the human beings in the household. Women lead all these activities that make a home run smooth.

This work is regarded as informal work, which women do not receive any pay or compensation for. Can you imagine if women were paid for the domestic and emotional labor they put into their households? Women will be rich and thrive in their households. This will eliminate the notion that women-led households are poor, and that poverty cannot be feminized.

Also, the idea that women live in their workspace and that’s where they call home is so true. For other types of work, we have a place to go to what we call work and return home at the end of the day, but for a woman who is constantly doing housework, there is no such thing. The workplace is also where they live and call home. This makes me see all the struggles that women go through and how much work they do and that should not be taken for granted.

Microfinance corporations or organizations have capitalized on this disadvantage of women. Microfinance organizations offer soft loans to women who wish to go into business and those who are already in business to expand. In Ghana, micro finances target small-scale market women. They are given money to expand their businesses, while others get money to start their business. This is a way to empower women to take charge of their finances and better their homes, especially in single-mother households.

 I am a firm believer that women contribute immensely to society and they should be compensated accordingly, however, that is not the case in our society. I look forward to a time when this will be our reality. 

GAD in Egypt

 

Gender and development studies in Egypt have a tendency to form questions about males only in terms of barriers to women’s economic development. Only lately have questions been increased about men’s own gendered practices and feelings, and how they understand the shifts in gender relations established by women’s empowerment. For example, little is understood about how males think about their bodies, ageing and illness, as well as the pressures placed on them by labor and the societal expectations of their partners and families. Recent research of Egyptian masculinities have emphasized that a considerable minority of men carry gender-equitable ideas, are invested in child-rearing, and may need assistance for their mental and physical health (El Feki, Heilman and Barker 2017).

Gender inequalities remain to distinguish the Egyptian economy; the country is ranked 132 (of 144) in the 2016 Global Gender Gap Index. Estimates from the International Labor Organization (ILO) (2017) present unambiguous and persistent gender inequalities in labor force participation (21.9 per cent women, 66.8 per cent men), employment to population ratios (16.9 per cent women, 61.3 per cent men) and unemployment rates (23.1 per cent women, 8.3 per cent men). Studies reveals that private sector companies avoid young women because their anticipated marital and family responsibilities will decrease efficiency. This has caused the unemployment level for current female graduates reaching 20.5 per cent (compared with 3.7 per cent for men) (National Council for Women (NCW) 2017). Career progression chances for women are also restricted: estimates suggest that just 17.8 per cent of Egyptian companies have female involvement in ownership, while only 4.9 per cent have women as top executives (World Bank 2016). Gender disparities in salaries have also risen dramatically over the past two decades.

Over the past decade, Egypt has made attempts to deal with gender concerns in access to finance. In 2007, the Ministry of Finance recognized gender inequalities in policies, programs and services that hinder women’s capability to create and maintain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and has taken procedures to enhance women’s access to finance (Ministry of Finance 2007). In 2017, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) stated that 50 per cent of the businesses it had offered loans to were owned by women (MSMEDA 2017).

 The Egyptian administration has also tackled gender concerns in basic social protection. Approximately 2.3 million families have registered in the Takaful (Solidarity) (conditional cash transfer) and Karama (Dignity) (unconditional cash transfer) program sponsored by the World Bank (2017), the immense majority of which (88 per cent) are female-headed households. The National Council of Women (NCW) also has an ambitious national policy to improve women’s political involvement and improve their economic and social constitutional rights by 2030 (NCW 2017).

 

The provision of Micro-Financial Services in Egypt

Microfinance is not a new idea. Small-scale micro-credit services have been offered since the 1700s but in Egypt it was not till the 1950s that agricultural micro-lending was made accessible through the government-owned bank, Principal Bank for Development and Agriculture (PBDAC). Since then, several other projects have been created such as the Productive Families project (PF), which was introduced by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1977 to offer microcredit to low-income groups, conditional on having a government worker guarantor.

In 1982, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) initiated a program for rural women with an emphasis on female-headed households. The program was implemented by the Ministry of Social Affairs while the Ford Foundation sponsored the Association for Garbage Collectors in Cairo in 1983 to offer credit and employment-related education (Barsoum, 2011). The project now manages under the sponsorships of the Ministry of Rural Development. The area of microfinance in Egypt significantly shifted in the late 1980s. In 1988 a project by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Egypt geared such changes (USAID, 2013). USAID funds were earmarked for the development of the small and micro-enterprise sector. The fund was focused on seed capital, organized development financing, education, and technical aid, and do research (USAID 2013).

USAID created two examples for the distribution of credit in Egypt: the foundation model and the bank model. The foundation model was to create not-for-profit foundations to provide an intermediary among individual debtors and the providing banks where seed funds were placed as a guarantee of a credit line for these debtors (USAID, 2013). Two institutions were first founded: the Small Enterprise Development Foundation (Cairo Foundation, which offers credit in the Cairo governorate) and the Alexandria Small Business Organization (ABO). The model was later reproduced in five other governorates: Port Said (1995), Assuit (1996), Sharkyla (1997), Dakahleya (1998), and Kafr El-Sheikh (1999). The bank model was applied by the National Bank for Development with staff in 13 of its offices devoted to the establishment of small and micro-business lending and mobile companies spreading out of each branch (USAID 2013).

While increasing the field considerably, the USAID role introduced a new flow in the microfinance area in Egypt that recognized it from the earlier practices. It emphasized the business development model vis-a-vis the previous poverty mitigation model. Various approaches and targeting processes developed. The new focus group was small firms in urban places instead of the previous emphasis on rural home-based events.

The business of the new project was mostly male despite the donors’ emphasis on a female presence. Loan amounts were comparatively large. More emphasis was positioned on program self-sufficiency, sustainability, and even effectiveness (USAID, 2013) as opposed to the previous dependence on donor funds. In their targeting policies, programs emphasized the economic capacity of the borrower rather than their poverty. Expansion officers were primarily male, and a strict bonus and salary system was applied in order to tie the reimbursement rate of the borrowers to the salary of the extension officer who chose them and was accountable for the collection of their loan payments. This wage system formed a crucial structure that ensured that only thriving enterprises received credit and that unstable or low-income economic activities were filtered out.

Pain, Beauty, & Empowerment

     Beauty, they say varies or differs in various cultures and societies. Each country and culture have its definition of beauty. Our preoccupation with beauty is an international obsession, but how we define beauty across the globe could not be more different. Health, fitness, and social expectations are consistent in standards of beauty across cultures. Although different cultures have their ideas about what and who is considered beautiful. People go through pain, just to fit in the society in which they find themselves. The criteria for which some countries can ascertain if someone is beautiful is intriguing to know. The concept of beauty has been hard to find in times past and even in recent times. Many say, beauty comes from within and it lies in the eyes of the beholder.

 It is very intriguing to unravel the diverse concepts of beauty according to different societies, beliefs, and cultures. It is very amazing to know how the environment and our belief systems go a long to influence certain decisions. But the issue is, is it about society or it is about the members of society?

 In Myanmar and Thailand, women receive a brass spiral all around their neck, and every year, someone will add one or two rings to the females until they are adults; these rings puts pressure on the shoulders to make them drop and eventually stretches the neck, with the belief that the longer your neck, the more beautiful you are. 

Another tribe is also the Mursi an ethnic group in Africa, that permits a form of status for the women, accentuated by the extent of the deformation with the earlobes covered with colorful pearls, others in Mursi also use lip dilators, which is a measure that a child has become a woman. The two lower front teeth are removed to make dilation possible, they engrave the lip and insert clay into the wood to make the lip broaden. 

This is pain! This is done to empower the girls in society. Empowerment should not be painful. Do you have to go through pain before you can be empowered? Women without these brass spirals and lip dilators in these societies are disregarded. I believe we can still empower women without subjecting them to such suffering and tragedy. 

Disregard for Women in Urban Planning Exercises in Accra

     

Over half of Accra's population are migrants who travel from other parts of the country to the city in search of a better livelihood and to make ends meet (Abrokwah, 2013). For decades, the city has been swelled up by rural-urban and urban-urban migration due to underdevelopment of Ghana’s rural areas and the high concentration of opportunities and industries in the cities (Steel, Ujoranyi & Owusu, 2014). This can be attributed to the legacy of the colonial economy that has aggravated since the 1980s after Ghana chose a neoliberal structural project directed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (Yeboah et al., 2013). The proliferation of migrant settlements in Accra can be ascribed to the highly unequal urban geography and the exclusion of other cities from formal housing markets (Obeng-Odoom, 2013b). According to Owusu (2012), the persistent inept planning regulations and weak state capacity during the colonial epoch encouraged unplanned informal development. For some years now, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has responded aggressively to the informal settlements by introducing decongestion exercises to evict squatters and street traders to transform Accra into a modern and millennium city. 

The exercise, headed by the Regular Coordinating Council (RCC) with the support of security agencies (the military and police) and the government, began from the central business district where squatters were ousted immediately. The approaches and practices applied in decongestion and urbanization policies have done no good in terms of sustainable development due to the exclusion of and disregard for women in the process. Men are mostly at the forefront of the exercise, whereas most victims are women workers. The bulldozing strategy has been used in Accra to accomplish the decongestion policy, in which residents of slums and anyone employed in the informal economy, particularly street vendors, are treated with violence and impulsivity. Disposing of the informal proletariat is a strategy that significantly offends proponents of the right to the city since it implies, both explicitly and implicitly, that some groups of city workers have no place or livelihood in Accra. All people are negatively affected by forced evictions, but women are frequently disproportionately affected and must put up with the harshest abuse. This is because women frequently occupy a unique position in Ghana's historical informal economy (Crentsil & Owusu, 2018).

    Owusu and Lund (2004) claim that although Ghanaian women have long engaged in informal trading, the effects of economic reform programs beginning in the mid-1980s have pushed more women into this sector, either as the household's sole breadwinners or as supplementers of incomes in the face of rising prices for essential needs, growing unemployment and underemployment of male partners, declining real incomes, and the growing need to pay local taxes. The decongestion policy in Accra has been tantamount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, particularly when carried out with violence or with discriminatory intent especially, on women. During forced evictions, women are frequently harassed or beaten and occasionally subjected to inhumane treatment.

'Who's the man?' Why the gender divide in same-sex relationships is a farce

A Fair And Inclusive Solution For Transgender Women In Sports

 Hello everyone,

For my blog post I read an article that sought to have a solution for transgender women competing in sports. Their goal was to appease both sides of the argument and allow for transgender women to still compete, but with some caveats. The article mentions that transgender women should be allowed to participate in practices, travel, and the general camaraderie of the team, but when it comes to scoring transgender women in sports they would be in their own category. Now, this category would not contain all transgender women. It would only contain transgender women who went through "male" puberty. The article discusses how people who have gone through "male" puberty have an advantage over biological women. 

This is an interesting solution in my opinion because it is trying to make both sides feel comfortable. However, I think that by making a third category for transgendered women to compete in this might not validate the transgender women's gender identity. By not allowing for these women to compete with women I think it is inherently saying that transgender women are not women. I don't know how we could come up with another solution though. I see where the argument is coming from because biological males do have advantages over women in sports. For example, in high school one of my best friends who is a cisgendered women did wrestling. There weren't very many women on the team so they would often go again boys, but everytime they did this they lost. This was due to the men being biologically stronger than the females. 

In terms of our class I thought this was an interesting piece to look into, because we do a lot of thinking in the binary in this class. We look into women and and men, but have not really dove into people who are transgender or even non binary. This is interesting because when someone does not fit into the binary what gender roles might be there? Would transgender women fit the same categories? When we talk about investing in women, are we including transgender women? Also, this article didn't touch on transgender men. If a transgender man has gone through hormones and is on testosterone are they at the same level physically as a biological male? Should transgender men compete in a third category? A forth category? Where do we draw the line of separating people? Are we going too far and invalidating gender? Please let me know your thoughts!

Wauren

Lopiano, D. (2022, October 12). A Fair And Inclusive Solution For Transgender Women In Sports. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/donnalopiano/2022/08/04/a-fair-and-inclusive-solution-for-transgender-women-in-sports/?sh=f0e930412efd

Harmful not ‘toxic’ masculinity narratives

 

When thinking about moving forward in terms of development and how to do so in a more holistic manner through the incorporation of all gendered beings including men, we must stop to also analyze the definition of men and masculinity as also a social construction that has taken place in the dichotomy comparison of men and women.

In this regard, the opening words for the 2018 American Psychological Association for Practice included the phrase “Boys and men are diverse”. The analysis drew upon the idea that men in modern times have been categorized within the homogenous notion of ‘masculinity’ as a positivist and favorable condition within societies and although this is greatly true, there is need to further study just how this homogenous notion also further affects men and by relationship women around the world.

Specific narratives around strength both physically, mentally and emotionally, self-reliance and risk can actually be harmful for the well-being of men and can be contributing factors to outcomes such as suicide, depression or substance abuse. Furthermore, according to Phillipe Leonard, “Men falling into the ‘trap of patriarchal masculinity’ is not only hurting the people they wish to be involved in their lives but also themselves by not allowing them to explore themselves beyond the status quo of gender”

Although, this is articulating the need for men to break out of the traditional roles of negative masculinities, stating that they “fall into the trap” sends out the message that it accidental and coincidental when this happens, therefore breaking men free from their own power of choice. But what can men then do to try to break out of these stereotypical roles that are both harmful for themselves and for others?

A guardian article published in 2018, by Richard Godwin accounts for his testimonial experience of attending a men’s group in London. Although most men there were white and cisgendered, through his experience he was able to understand the internal and emotional struggles that men carry by abiding to the normative masculinities. In addition, he soon came to realize that through these struggles and the necessity for change other struggles from the harmful narratives of masculinity emerged and counter acted on his personal desire to not be put in the same group as other men that practiced toxic masculinities.

 

“But there are moments – say when I’m happily cooking with my son – when the dominant narrative of masculinity as toxic, entitled, corrupt, dysfunctional and so on seems a little limiting. If you’ve always found men such as Weinstein despicable and pathetic, it’s disorienting to find yourself in the same category as him by virtue of also having a penis. A couple of times, I’ve begun the sentence: “You know, not all men… ” only to recall that that in itself is seen as a dick move.” - Richard Godwin The Guardian

 

Although much work in understanding and incorporating masculinities and male participation within development is still needed, it is becoming more popular for men to attend men’s groups, gender classes or even carrying out non-traditional roles within households. These are all valid and necessary entry points for men to continue to fight alongside women for an equal and equitable change.  

 

Bibliography: 

Richard Godwin, 2018, Men after #Me Too, The Guardian 

Philippe Leonard, 2018, Reasons why Feminism is Good and not bad for Men 

 

 

Menstrual Hygiene in Developing Nations & Engendering Development

 

Every day, girls in low-income countries around the world are staying home from school due to menstrual cycle starting. It is estimated that girls might be missing as much as 10% to 20% of school days due to  complications connected to menstruation. There are three major implications that young women face that stop them from attending school. Firstly, there are inadequate (female designated) bathrooms. Where there are bathrooms in schools, there are often few in number, toilets often lack doors (which create ridicule from the boys), no proper disposal for sanitary products, and they have a complete lack of water or are from a source - all of which makes them late for school.  Secondly, there is largely insufficient menstrual supplies. Young women lack menstrual products and even clean underwear and are forced to manage with cloth, tissues, or toilet paper. Many would rather miss school than potential face ridicule from a menstrual leak. Thirdly, these girls lack any informal or formal education about menstruation. Girls often receive no guidance from family and many schools lack any formal education on puberty and menstruation for girls, largely due to neglect and male-dominance in schools. So, why is this happening? Despite growing local and global attention, cultural taboos and secrecy about menstrual blood are reinforcing a large gap in knowledge (particularly by men and men in positions of power) that causes these issues to continue to be neglected. But change is occurring! Currently researchers, programmers, and policymakers are working globally to address menstrual health barriers facing school-aged girls. UNICEF country officers in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, South-East Asia, and Latin America presented research on their early efforts to address barriers to positive menstrual health practices in collaboration with country education systems. Also, for the first time there are also girl's puberty books are being published in countries such as Tanzania, Ghana, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, India, and Zimbabwe. Also, growing advocacy to remove value-added tax on the import of sanitary materials into Sub-Saharan African countries and numerous local and entrepreneurial efforts to produce reusable, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable sanitary materials. We (as governmental organizations, NGOS, non-profits, etc.) need to build on the momentum that has been occuring and continue to understand the impact that menstrual health has young women's ability to learn and thrive in the school setting. A multi-sectional response encompassing water provision/sanitation, sanitation, urban planning, education, and health can ensure that appropriate evidence-based and cost-effective interventions and policy are developed and implemented and that girls and women ultimately use them. As with other sensitive or taboo topics, responses must be culturally and locally based and adapted to ensure they are effective.

Chapter 7 (health and population) of Engendering Development very similarly discusses how economic development programs tend to focus on technological fixes rather than providing sanitation measures/infrastructure/resources that are practical and will realistically work for all members within a given community. Women have different and arguably more crucial sanitation needs as they undergo menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth, and are more likely to suffer from infection and illnesses (such as UTIs and yeast infections) from poor sanitation/contaminated water from their various semi-exposed internal genitalia. When bathrooms are not available within/near their home, women are at risk for harassment or assault if they seek, for example, to use a bathroom without a door, a bathroom at night, or have to walk far distances to use one. Also, if women wait extended periods to urinate or limit the amount of water/liquids they are consuming in order to urinate less/altogether, this can lead to UTIs or kidney stones.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3780686/ 

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/brief/menstrual-health-and-hygiene 

Affirmative Action and Development in Ghana

Ghana legislated  an Affirmative Action Act in the middle of 1960 that allows 10 women members to represent the regions of the country. After over 50 years, in 2011 a committee was set up in response  to its mandate to promulgate an Affirmative Action Law (AAL) as called in Article 4 and 7 of the convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women draft the Affirmative action bill. A bill that was said to include the marginalized in development in Ghana.

Affirmative action is a policy or program providing advantages  for people of a minority group where  are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society through preferential access to education, healthcare, employment and social welfare.

There has been numerous calls on past and present government by Civil organizations such as Centre for  Democratic Development, CDD Ghana , the Affirmative Action Coalition and Individuals to pass the Affirmative Action bill that was drafted over 10 years. This Bill will include the marginalized group such as women in developmental agenda.

The Bill is important as it cut across the importance of representation of women in development and politics. Women in Ghana are faced with lots of challenges and having a great number of people in government and areas of development will help in addressing these challenges. Many women in Ghana are faced with discriminatory and sensitive issues that hinders their development. They are also faced with limited autonomy, low status poverty, gender based violence, lack of access of justice and legal information and lack of access to land and credit facilities.

The Affirmative action bill when passed will enable women to have full representation and access to some of the most important things and aspect of development such as education, health care, legal service and credit  facilities that are accessed by mostly the elite and affluence and for the country to move from  more rhetoric to action, the onus lies on political leadership to take bold steps to address the implementation of gender based policies.