Achieving gender equality
THE International Day for Women, March 8, 2024, lead document says — “In a world facing multiple crises that are putting immense pressure on communities, achieving gender equality is more vital than ever. Ensuring women’s and girls’ rights across all aspects of life is the only way to secure prosperous and just economies, and a healthy planet for future generations”.
One of the key challenges in achieving gender equality by 2030 is an alarming lack of financing with a staggering $US360 billion ($F805b) annual deficit in spending on gender-equality measures.
Join us on March 8, 2024 for IWD as we rally behind the call to “Invest in women: Accelerate progress”.
Here are five key areas hat need our joint action to ensure women are not left behind;
Investing in women: A human rights issue
Time is running out. Gender equality remains the greatest human rights challenge.
Investing in women is a human rights imperative and cornerstone for building inclusive societies. Progress for women benefits us all.
Ending poverty
The COVID pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, climate disasters, and economic turmoil have pushed an extra 75 million people into severe poverty, since 2020. This could lead to more than 342 million women and girls living below the poverty line by 2030, making immediate action crucial.
Implementing genderresponsive financing
Due to conflicts and rising fuel and food prices, recent estimates suggest that 75 per cent of countries will curb public spending by 2025. Austerity negatively impacts women and crowds out public spending on essential public services and social protection.
Shifting to a green economy and care society
The current economic system exacerbates poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation, disproportionately affecting women and marginalised groups. Advocates for alternative economic models propose a shift towards a green economy and care society that amplifies women’s voices.
Supporting feminist change-makers
Feminist organisations are leading efforts to tackle women’s poverty and inequality. However, they are running on empty, receiving a meagre 0.13 per cent of total official development assistance.
Families and valuing homemakers
IWD has the focus – “Invest in Women- Accelerate progress”- taking all the above pointers in this document, Penang Institute hosted Professor Euston Quah for a talk and discussion on measuring household production and valuing homemakers on the January 8, 2023.
The discussions, highlighted the fact that Housework remains predominantly undertaken by females, even as resistance persists towards measuring household production. Nevertheless, the need to measure household production is important for various reasons;
❍ it can provide insights in resolving work and family conflicts caused by unequal involvement in household chores;
❍ understanding the gender gap in housework contribution allows policy makers to influence labour force participation rates of men and women in an informed manner;
❍ recognising the economic contribution of women in households and in society has important implications on litigations and legal disputes over compensation for wrongful injury or death of a homemaker;
❍ it guides a fairer distribution of matrimonial property assets; and
❍ provides a better basis for inter-temporal growth calculations, for international comparisons of national income, and total economic production and social welfare of a country.
In this talk, Professor Euston Quah, the Albert Winsemius Chair Professor of Economics at Nanyang Technological University, reviewed the literature on household production valuation, highlighted trends, and outlined the methodologies used in the subject.
Reporting on some new studies and using real life cases to illustrate the importance and relevance of measuring and valuing home production, Quah also discussed how the role of homemakers could be recognised more formally; and if remuneration be given, on what basis could this be done?
Valuing homemakers’ contributions, Professor Quah argued, remains as important as ever, if not more.
Professor Quah started the talk by acknowledging the contribution of women to the household, as majority of domestic work and care work are undertaken by women.
Being that household production is a huge component of economic growth, there is a demand to measure household production, so that the economic contribution of women in the households and the society can be recognised and duly appreciated.
Additionally, the measurement of household production extends beyond enhancing income and economic welfare distribution measures for policy purposes; it also holds relevance for family law and gender equality considerations.
There are many challenges associated with the measurement of household production. The discussion delved into concerns such as data scarcity, definitional ambiguities, and variations in the time-sensitivity of household chores between men and women, diminishing returns to labor, and the complexities involved in formulating an accurate valuation method.
Professor Quah then proceeded to discuss the current approaches to household production, including the output valuation method, the replacement cost method, and the efficiency-adjusted replacement cost method.
He also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each method, emphasising the importance of time-use surveys in measuring household production.
The Q&A session posed intriguing questions regarding the opportunity cost associated with the mental and physical health of homemakers. Gender biases and stereotypes were also brought into discussion and Professor Quah emphasised how the valuation of household production could spotlight the homemaker’s (predominantly women) contributions, aiding in the formulation of policies that formally recognise their vital role. (Source: Penang Institute, Malaysia, Newsletter).
The theme-Invest in Women –Accelerate Progress – also needs to bring to the table:
❍ The plight of families and the older women, the grandmothers, and their contributions to care, protection, and nurturing of grandchildren, in many cases of absentee parents;
❍ The meagre social pensions and welfare allowances paid for the important tasks done at a very cost effective way;.
❍ Perhaps the most significant contribution is the transfer of spiritual, cultural, family and moral values for human and community wellbeing.
Remember – Strong Families – make strong communities and a stronger nation. of people.