The World Bank finds enhancing women's agency and voice is an overlooked aspect of development that should be put “squarely on the international development agenda."
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation)—Programmes designed to lift women out of poverty cannot succeed until underlying social norms and laws constraining women’s autonomy to act and participate in decisions are addressed, according to a World Bank report released Wednesday.
The report, “Voice and Agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity,” focuses on key areas where social norms and legal constraints hamper women’s agency, or ability to make decisions about their own lives and act on them, and their voice, or the ability to have their voices heard in the decision-making, whether at home or in public office.
It is an aspect of development that has not received enough attention from those creating programmes to empower women and one that should be put “squarely on the international development agenda,” the report said.
“If we look too narrowly at the services, we’re not getting at the more fundamental constraints and opportunities,” Jeni Klugman, director of gender and development at the World Bank, told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
For example, she noted that “running a full-time training program for women over some period of time isn’t going to work for women if they have other responsibilities” such as childcare, fetching water, food preparation and other duties in the home. Agencies, including the World Bank, which provide assistance to women must be more cognizant of these constraints when they design development programmes, she said.
The areas addressed in the study include freedom from gender-based violence, control over sexual and reproductive health and equal rights for men and women to own and control land and housing. The constraints and deprivations experienced by women in these areas often are rooted in gender-biased and discriminatory social norms and laws, the report said.
“Changing those norms, I think, ends up being the most important general challenge that emerges,” said Klugman, who directed research on the report, which distills an enormous amount of data and hundreds of studies to examine global constraints on women.
“On the one hand, it’s daunting. On the other, if we can see progress in that area we’ll reap benefits on multiple fronts. For example, reduction in the instances of violence would bring benefits in terms of health and productivity and greater control over reproductive and sexual decisions that (otherwise) lead to unwanted pregnancy,” she said.
The results of progress in such areas can be life changing for both women and their communities. “Removing constraints and unleashing women’s full productive potential can yield enormous dividends that help make whole societies more resilient and more prosperous,” the report said.
The study also emphasizes that increasing women’s agency and voice is not “a zero-sum game.” It need not curtail the agency of men, who stand to gain from gender equality that improves the economic and psychological well-being of the entire family.
Although achieving agency and voice is a challenge for women and girls in all countries and at all income levels, the problem is particularly acute for poor women, according to the report.
In terms of gender-based violence, the report found “Across 33 low- and middle-income countries, almost one-third of women say that they cannot refuse sex with their partners.”
It also concluded that gender-based violence often is connected with social norms that reinforce inequality and prohibit women and girls from controlling their own choices.
These choices include accessing reproductive health as many women and girls have limited control over their ability to obtain contraception. The result is that nearly one in five girls in developing countries becomes pregnant before the age of 18.
Not only are pregnancy-related causes the largest factor in the deaths of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 but the early pregnancies themselves rob countries of income, ranging from 1 percent of annual gross domestic product in China to up to 30 percent in Uganda.
The report found that among the most promising programmes are those that combine vocational and life-skills training for young girls in ways that also provide them with information and opportunities that challenge social norms. Girls participating in one such programme, Uganda’s Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents program demonstrated much greater control over their sexual and reproductive health, the report said.
GETTING MEN INVOLVED
Engaging men and boys in the fight against discriminatory social norms is crucial and can be effective. The report cites evidence across eight countries that showed when men were aware of laws addressing violence against women they were nearly 50 percent more likely to prevent an act of violence by a stranger.
Programmes that educate men in other ways, such as Australia’s Male Champions for Change, work with male business and government leaders to promote significant increases in representation of women in leadership positions.
Globally, women represent only a fraction of corporate leaders and they account for less than 22 percent of parliamentarians.
Along with repressive social norms, legal discrimination also plays a role in constraining women. In 2013, 128 countries had at least one law difference between men and women, including restrictions on land ownership, eligibility for credit and the ability to take a job without their husband’s consent.
“Reform of discriminatory laws, particularly in the realm of family, inheritance, and property law, is an important first step for advancing women’s access to land and housing” provided it is accompanied by strong enforcement, according to the report.
Social norms also can keep girls from getting an education, perhaps the most powerful single factor in advancing women’s agency and voice, or pursuing certain career paths. “Around the world, we see that better educated women are often better able to make and implement decisions and choices, even where gender norms are restrictive,” the study said.
It also takes a pragmatic, long-term approach to the difficulties of changing social norms and customs.
“We need to be patient and we need to be thinking about the underlying constraints,” said Klugman. “There’s no kind of obvious quick fixes.”
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