Women's socio-economic empowerment: where are the data gaps?

This blog, written by Wikigender Coordinator Estelle Loiseau, give the highlights of the Wikigender online discussion on "Data Gaps on Gender Equality", which in its first week focused on the socio-economic empowerment of women.* 

Wow, this is impressive - 48 comments in the first week of the discussion! This not only shows high interest, but also gives an idea of the importance of the topic. Last week we heard from you on where has progress been made in the area of data on gender equality since the establishment of the MDGs in 2000, as well as where the gaps are and where improvements can be made. So, where do we stand?

We can say that participants agreed that there has been progress, notably in the area of sex-disaggregated and gender-sensitive data (but with important limitations) and also in terms of the quality, analysis and dissemination of gender statistics. However, more efforts are needed in several areas, for example regarding the data collection at country level and in certain specific sectors like agriculture or aquaculture and fisheries. Also, a number of new areas of research and priority areas were brought to the fore. Let's take a look in detail...

Data issues mentioned

• Comparability of data at EU level, within OECD countries and beyond, within and across regions
• Common standards, harmonised data and definitions
• Coverage in terms of countries, type of policy and time trends (e.g. for indicators on policies that promote women's socio-economic empowerment)
• Lack of continuity between surveys 
• Data gaps in access to finance and land, and data gaps in agriculture, among others
• Capacity building of National Statistics Offices
• Many surveys are not gender-sensitive, e.g. in agriculture
• Data demand/use needs to be enhanced

"When it comes to data on entrepreneurship, it seems that data collection is greatly impaired by problems of definitions. There are no agreed definitions of what 'entrepreneurship' means, although it is regarded as a driver for social inclusion, empowerment and growth."                                                                                                  - Anne Laure Humbert

New areas of research and suggestions

• Time-use: to better understand women's participation in the labour market and the balance of family and work responsibilities
• Unpaid work: to make sure that women's contribution in the area of care is accounted for in the economic measures
• Social norms: to better understand the power imbalances at household level, which have an impact on women's empowerment at society level
• Fiscal policy: to better recognise women's contribution to the economy, one could disaggregate taxpayers' data by sex
• Technology: to develop a measurement framework to evaluate empowerment within technology initiatives where women are central players (e.g. in sectors such as clean cooking)

"ECLAC (...) has been key in moving forward with time use surveys and in that sense achieving comparability inasmuch as possible. This is creating the possibility to use these surveys to construct satellite accounts that can serve for policy design, but also micro simulation and other uses."                                                                                 - Elizabeth Villagomez

Priority areas

• Earning gaps, including from self employment
• Unpaid work
• Informal work, especially with a focus on poor women
• Systematic inclusion of age and sex in data collection, including old age

"We need more countries to collect data on informal employment (...), including on specific categories of informal workers such as domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers and we need data on the earnings of the self employed."                                                                                                                     - Joann Vanek, WIEGO

To improve data quality, availability and coverage, participants emphasised: South-South cooperation and support from donors and international agencies; more political will for gender equality (e.g. Africa); strong advocacy for new research areas and priority areas; continued capacity building at country level; systematic inclusion of data at country level in global reports; national action plans; and more.

Many examples of initiatives and programmes were mentioned, including: PARIS21's data revolution; HBSC's data collection work on the health and well-being of adolescents; a measurement framework for monitoring equality and human rights in Great Britain by the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission; the OECD Gender Data Portal; Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index; and many more! 

The discussion during week 1 was particularly rich and interactive. This summary does not provide a full picture of the various mini-discussions which took place at several levels on some of the above-mentioned areas. Click here to read the full thread of comments and engage further!

This second week (3-9 February), we turn the focus on data gaps in the area of violence against women. See the questions asked for week 2 and join in the conversation!

*The discussion is brought to you by Wikigender, the UN Foundation, Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC), the EU-LAC Foundation, European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), ECLAC and PARIS21 - and in collaboration with Wikiprogress and Wikichild.

Online Discussion: Data Gaps on Gender Equality

Wikigender is running a new online discussion in partnership with the UN Foundation, Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC), the EU-LAC Foundation, European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), ECLAC and PARIS21 – while collaborating with Wikiprogress and Wikichild regarding:

Data Gaps on Gender Equality

Open from 27 January-14 February

We would like to engage participants in a discussion about where the data gaps exist concerning gender equality. With this discussion, we hope to pioneer initiatives that generate new data and new methodological approaches and to examine complex areas of gender equality, including unpaid care, time use and social norms. The discussion will also address the “data revolution” and gender statistics, lessons learned since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000, and proposals for priority targets for the post-2015 development agenda.

Each week of the discussion, there will be a different theme open for comments and dialogue:

Week 1: The socio-economic empowerment of women

Week 2: Violence against women

Week 3: Civic and political participation of women

The outcomes and main findings of the discussion will be summarised in a final report and presented at a side event at the 58^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women held in New York in March 2014. The side event will be organised by the OECD Development Centre, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

We invite you to find out more about the online discussion and questions for each theme by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1dnPEkI

You may begin participating in the discussion on 27 January, 2014. To post a comment, simply go to the “Contribute!” section of the discussion page. We count on your participation and hope that you will disseminate this information widely to your contacts! Feel free to use the following links to send an invitation to your contacts in Spanish or French also. On Twitter, we use the hashtags #gender and #datagaps

See you very soon on www.wikigender.org to discuss this issue!

Estelle Loiseau

Wikigender Co-ordinator

Blue Helmets: Women in peacekeeping

This blog, written by Vision of Humanity's Natalia Beghin, is about women's growing role in UN peacekeeping, peacebuilding and reconciliation in conflict-prone areas as deployed females perform the same roles as their male counterparts. This post is a part of Wikiprogress' series on Gender Equality.

Women are beginning to comprise a larger proportion of UN peacekeepers than ever before, and are changing the landscape of peacebuilding and reconciliation for the better.

Although the greatest proportion of non-professional and civilian positions, such as cooks, administrative officers, and support staff within the United Nations are filled by women, they have traditionally represented less than 2% of all peacekeeping forces. Between 1957 and 1989, this number was even smaller, when a total of only 20 women served as uniformed peacekeepers with the UN. In addition to their service, these female officers acted as a vanguard in advance of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1325 made in the year 2000, which called for the increased participation of women in peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction.

Since then, three all-female peacekeeping units have been deployed around the world. The largest and most successful of the assignments has been the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) which has seen a deployment of around 100 Indian women rotated each year since 2007. The women are supported by a team of cooks, drivers, and administration staff, and perform all the same armed duties of their male counterparts deployed in other parts of the world.

Not only has the increased participation of female military personnel in UN peacekeeping missions strengthened the universal movement for gender equality, but it has also brought an above average degree of stability to UNMIL and other female led missions that is noteworthy. In Monrovia, where the large majority of the Indian peacekeepers are based, the frequent foot patrols through dangerous neighbourhoods have decreased the crime rate by up to 65%.

"Importantly, the presence of women in peacekeeping also acts to empower female members of host communities to improve their status within their own society."

This is demonstrated by the rising numbers of host-country women seeking employment in the police and armed forces throughout the period of a UN mission, such as in Liberia, where the percentage of women in the police force has risen from 6% in 2007 to approximately 15% in 2012. Additionally, female peace keepers tend to use force less often than their male counterparts, and have been shown in some studies to be more likely to successfully mediate violent situations. These qualities help to make female peacekeepers more approachable than their male counterparts, particularly for women who have been the victims of the sexual and gender based violence that is often systemic in conflict and post-conflict environments.

Although the target set by Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon in 2009 to increase the amount of female police in UN forces to 20% by 2014 has not been reached, all the ground-breaking work completed by UN women personnel has been indispensable for both the fight for peace, and the struggle for gender equality. The success of the Indian mission in Liberia and others like it have paved the way for the valuable participation of women in peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, now and into the future. 

- Natalia Beghin

*This post was first published on the Vision of Humanity blog site on 7 January, 2014.

Unfinished business: women and girls front and centre beyond 2015

This post, by Emily Esplen, Policy Analyst on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights at the OECD, is based on a speech prepared for the Secretary General of the OECD for a joint workshop of the DAC Network on Gender Equality and the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality on the MDGs and post-2015. This blog is a part of the Wikiprogress series on Post-2015.

There is no chance of making poverty history without significant and rapid improvements to the lives of women and girls. Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG 3) recognised that gender equality is important both as a goal in its own right and as a prerequisite to the success of all other development goals. That gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of only eight global goals has proven to be a powerful stimulus for action.

Yet despite hard won gains, we are a long way from achieving gender equality. All over the world, women and girls continue to face discrimination, exclusion, poverty and violence on the basis of their sex. The figures are stark. Gender parity in primary education has not been achieved in 68 countries. Women still face gender pay gaps, occupational segregation and glass ceilings. They hold less secure jobs than men, with fewer social benefits. 800 women die every day from preventable pregnancy and childbirth related causes. One in three women experience violence in their lifetime.

We must do everything we can to achieve the MDGs by the end of 2015. This means meeting existing aid commitments and investing in the right strategies to accelerate progress for women and girls in the time that remains. Finishing the job we started with the MDGs will also require an ambitious and inspiring post-2015 framework that builds on and expands the priority given to advancing gender equality in the MDGs.

Agreeing an ambitious agenda 

 

This was the focus of much lively debate at a workshop in early November in Paris, which drew together gender equality advocates from the United Nations, governments and civil society. Participants echoed the strong consensus emerging from across the globe that addressing the "unfinished business" of gender equality and women’s empowerment means putting women and girls front and centre in the post-2015 framework. This will require a strong stand-alone gender equality goal and the comprehensive integration of gender-specific targets and indicators across the new framework.

Now is time to go beyond business as usual and step up our efforts to empower girls and women. Participants were unequivocal that a new framework will need to address the structural factors that underpin the widespread persistence of gender inequality. This calls for a transformational agenda that is anchored in and aligned with existing international human rights standards. Priority must be given to addressing the disadvantage experienced by the most marginalised women and girls.

Fighting for the targets and indicators that will really make a difference 

 

When the time is right, we need to be ready with the targets and indicators that will really make a difference to the lives of women and girls. Already clear areas of consensus are emerging about what is needed. We know that quality secondary education has huge pay-offs for women’s empowerment. We know that putting an end to early marriage would transform girls’ lives – enabling them to stay in school, fulfil their potential and make choices about their futures. We know that expanding women’s economic opportunities is a key driver of development with multiplier effects for societies, economies and women themselves. We know that women’s capacity to influence the decisions that shape their lives is a basic human right and a prerequisite for responsible and equitable governance. We know that ending violence against women is essential for women’s full participation in economic, social and political life. Each of these must be priorities in the post-2015 framework.

Backing up political rhetoric with action

 

Building a framework with teeth will require adequate and sustained financing, and strong accountability mechanisms. Political promises must be backed up with the resources required to do the job. We need to gather and use high quality data to monitor our progress and build evidence about what works. We also need to track governments’ expenditure and the proportion of aid focused on achieving gender equality, and hold ourselves to account for the promises we make.

Towards a universal agenda

 

At the OECD, we know that there is no country in the world where gender equality has been achieved. That’s why we need to keep a strong focus on gender equality beyond 2015. It is also a potent reminder that gender equality is a universal concern that applies to all countries, including OECD countries.

The OECD aspires to play the role of “best supporting actor” in support of these global processes – recognising that real progress is only possible if countries themselves own the agenda and are in the lead. Bringing gender equality and women’s rights to the centre of government attention is a challenge for the months ahead.

Arriving at global consensus will not be easy. With gender equality and women’s rights we can never afford to be complacent – it is not a done deal. And the post-2015 agenda is a high-stakes game. But success is within our grasp if we build a broad base of support and work together with our allies in the global south to position gender equality as a “must have”.

- Emily Esplen

Protsahan, Encouraging Girls Through the Arts in India

This blog post, written by Global Voices' Ayesha Saldanha, is part of the Wikiprogress Series on Post-2015. It discusses the role of gender equality and how the OECD engages with post-2015 ideas for development worldwide.

Gender equality is recognised as key to development, though it is yet to be fully achieved in any country. United Nations member states pledged to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals, including gender equality, by 2015. Progress has been uneven, and now the question for the international community is what the post-2015development framework should be.

As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has noted, gender equality as a development goal is “unfinishedbusiness":

Although there has been progress in some areas such as girls’ access to primary education and women’s economic empowerment, the level of achievement has been uneven across regions and within countries. There is no chance of making poverty history without significant and rapid improvements to the lives of women and girls in all countries.

The OECD suggest that increased investment in the following five policy areas could have catalytic effects on development beyond 2015: Keeping girls in school; improving reproductive health and family planning; economic empowerment; supporting leadership; and stopping violence against women.

 Helping girls realize their dreams

Protsahan in India is an example of a social initiative that – without waiting for government action – is directly addressing these issues at a grassroots level, affecting the lives of hundreds.

They work to educated is advantaged girls from slums and red light areas through creative arts. It was established by a young woman called Sonal Kapoor and is run by a team of young people, many of them volunteers.

Kapoor was prompted by an encounter with a woman in Delhi who was sending her eight-year-old daughter to a brothel in order to support her five other daughters – and was planning to strangle the seventh child she was pregnant with if it turned out to be a girl.

Protsahan means “encouragement” in Hindi. A blog post from 2011 outlines their philosophy:

How many times have you blamed the country, the politicians, the mafia or “anyone” for the prevailing issues? It’s a fact that the economic gap, the growing discrepancies between evolving and degrading sections is so stark that it can be labeled as alarming now. While a small portion is growing wealthier, another section of the society is depleting with each passing day. [...] We have envisioned a way to do our bit, to hold some hands and to realize dreams for the less fortunate. [...] Our kids want support not just sympathy. They want a chance to live a better life, to contribute to the building of a better society. We want you to be a part of this initiative and help in the transformation.

The following video introduces the organisation's work:

The power of art

Protsahan offers a curriculum based on art and creativity that then allows the children to go on to study in government schools – and to change their communities. Kapoor explains:

These children come from very tough backgrounds. As a creative medium, the arts stimulate cognitive development, encourage innovative thinking and creativity and engender understanding.

 

A group of girls is currently writing, shooting and editing a film on the problem of open defecation, which will subsequently be screened in their communities. Kapoor (@ArtForCause) tweeted:

   

Photography is another skill being taught:

 

 

The girls at Protsahan recently performed in a play looking at the issue of violence against women:

American blogger Nicole Melancon (@thirdeyemom) visited Protsahan and posted a compilation of her photos:

Development post-2015

As the world looks ahead to what the post-2015development framework should be, it's likely that true gender equality will only be achieved with the creativity, innovation and support of concerned citizens as well. Protsahan is an example of what is possible at the local level.

Ayesha Saldanha

For more on this topic, see the Wikiprogress post-2015 portal , Wikichild and Wikigender platforms.  

This post first appeared 8 August, 2013 on the Global Voices blog.

Highlights of the week

As part of the Wikiprogress on Gender Equality series, this progblog brings you the ‘highlights of the week’. 

This week's highlights are focused on gender and include: Lebanese women taking on judges; the challenges facing Italian women; and a British political party attempts to increase female representation in parliament. Women also continued to make headline news this week as campaigns on gender such as One Billion Rising and Half the sky gain momentum. Finally, Wikigender recently organised an online discussion on Violence Against Women. Perhaps the subject of gender equality is starting to be taken seriously by the media?

Gender and Justice  

                                        

Lebanese women take on Muslim judges who call rape a 'marital right'

Lebanese women took to the streets to demand that their government introduce laws to protect them from domestic violence. Criminalizing marital rape "could lead to the imprisonment of the man," Sheik Ahmad Al-Kurdi, a judge in the Sunni religious court, told CNN, "where in reality he is exercising the least of his marital rights."

Accessing Justice: Models, Strategies and Best Practices on Women's Empowerment

This report by the International Development Law Organisation “highlights the critical role legal empowerment strategies can play in changing and challenging oppressive gender relations that are justified under the name of culture, by showcasing an impressive range of legal empowerment approaches in diverse geographical and cultural settings”. The study profiles a great selection of case studies and also discusses the role of discriminatory social institutions. 

"As we seek to build the world we want, let us intensify our efforts to achieve a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable development path built on dialogue, transparency and social justice." 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -  Message for the World Day of Social Justice (20 February 2013)

Gender and Politics

Lib Dems draw up job-share plans to boost number of women MPs

As British political parties struggle to find ways to increase female representation in parliament, plans for Members of Parliament (MPs) to job share in parliament are being developed by the Liberal Democrats (currently part of UK coalition government) to up the number of women elected and break up the 'male culture' that still dominates politics.

The six things wrong with Italy – and how to solve them

This Guardian articles outlines the 6 primary challenges that face Italy today, including: a stagnating economy, corruption, organised crime, political apathy, youth unemployment and the “treatment of women”, which came in second! Italy's female employment rate is, according to the OECD, at 46.5% (among the OECD members this is only better than Greece, Mexico and Turkey).

This weeks videos

Women of the (Arab Spring)Revolution - This is a great selection of videos on how women reflect on the changes that have occured in their countries, how they were a part of it, and whether attitudes have changed.

It’s nice to see children’s voices being given a serious platform. This talk is by 13 year-old Logan LaPlante, who wants to be happy and healthy ‘when he grows up’. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal. 

I leave you with a few words in Bangla (my mother tongue) paying tribute to International Mother Language Day which was held on 21 February.

আগামী সপ্তাহে আমি আপনাকে দেখতে হবে

Salema Gulbahar

(Wikiprogress Coordinator)

Gender Empowerment in India – Challenges and Opportunities.

As a part of the Wikiprogress on Gender Equality series, this progblog on gender empowerment in India is brought to you by one of our favourite bloggers Shailaja Chandra.

Shailaja Chandra gave a  talk on “Gender Empowerment in India – Challenges and Opportunities” to the National Defence College, New Delhi on 8th February 2013. Below is a copy of her slide show, please click on the screen to see the full presentation. 

Shailaja Chandra

(A former civil servant, Shailaja Chandra is the Vice President of Initiatives for Change-Centre for Governance, a think tank that supports social reform.)

Rising against sexual violence!

As a part of the Wikiprogress on Gender Equality series, this progblog on violence against women is brought to you by Estelle Loiseau, Wikigender Community Manager. 


Previously acclaimed for his race performance on carbon fibre prosthetic blades at the Olympics, Oscar Pistorius is now facing a potential life sentence for murdering his girlfriend following a dispute. This happened on Valentine’s Day. One day later, on Friday 15 February, - which this year was called “Black Friday” in South Africa as people were encouraged to wear black to raise awareness of rape – a 17 year old was gang raped and murdered. These two recent events have concentrated minds on a deep-rooted culture of sexual violence and general violence against women – not to mention the earlier gang rape that took place in India. Our most recent Special Focus on Wikigender is on “Rising against sexual violence” and we will continue to make violence against women a key issue in the coming weeks.

With the 57^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) coming up with a special focus on the “Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls”, Wikigender has organised an online discussion from 4-13 February on “Transforming social norms to prevent violence against women and girls”. The discussion was also co-hosted by Breakthrough, End Violence Against Women (EVAW UK), Partners for Prevention (P4P), Womankind Worldwide and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and brought 70 comments from many different countries, gathering the views from international organisations, policy analysts, gender experts, development practitioners, international and local NGOs and civil society. To tackle violence against women, participants identified three main levers of change: the media should be more gender-sensitive; we need to engage more men and boys; and laws must be enforced and adequate policies put in place. The media, in particular, came out strongly from this discussion. We can see this reality just by reading the media coverage of the recent events mentioned above, as some newspapers have sexually objectified Pistorius’ girlfriend, showing her before her death wearing a bikini – maybe as an attempt to get more readership, but also clearly showing a lack of respect for women and in this case making us forget that she was a victim of violence – and this is what we really should be focusing on.

On 4 March, the OECD Development Centre is co-hosting a side event at the 57^th CSW, together with the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the South African Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD). We will present the summary report from the online discussion – which will be posted online on Wikigender too – and discuss how we can transform social norms to prevent violence against women. If you are in New York attending the CSW, make sure to participate in our side event!

Click here for more information and how to register.

Estelle Loiseau

Gender Programme Assistant and Wikigender Community Manager

Spotlight! Gender Equality and Well-being

This Week in Review focuses on our theme of the month, which is Gender Equality and Well-being. Highlights of this review include; the American army’s decision to allow women to fight on the frontline, International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, Wikigender's most recent online discussion, 1 Billion Rising and 10x10, an innovative new feature film about the power of education to change a girl – and the world.

This month, violence against women is at the top of global agendas, and with this in mind, Wikigender ran an online discussion on ‘Transforming social norms to prevent violence against women and girls’. The forum posed the question of what type of social behaviors catalyze violence against women and also looked to find examples of policies and initiatives that have most successfully dealt with the problem. Raymond Brandes, one of many contributors to the discussion, made a particularly relevant point to the notion of gender equality, stipulating that ‘Realizing the economic and social rights of all members of society and reducing inequalities are important elements of addressing violence against women.’ The full results of the forum will be synthesized and published in a report by the Wikigender team in the near future. To access past Wikigender online discussions, click here.

The International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is observed on the 6^th of February each year to raise awareness about this physically and psychologically damaging practice. Female Genital Mutilation is recognized internationally as an extreme violation of human rights and despite efforts from organizations and governments to push for its eradication, FMG still affects around 140 million girls and women every year. In the early stages of 2013, focus groups have made a concerted effort to tackle the concerning trend of health-care providers performing FGM, which has contributed to its legitimization in Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East (areas where the practice is concentrated most heavily). To find out up to date information on FGM, visit Wikigender's page on the subject.  

Yesterday, on V-Day’s 15^th Anniversary, One Billion Rising mobilized thousands of people to call for an end to violence against women. The organization invited one billion women to strike and dance against the reality that one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. The movement is hoping to influence the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is being held in New York next month.

Interestingly, while much of this blog post has centered around global movements to counter violence against women, U.S Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently declared that the military would be eradicating its long-standing ban on women partaking in frontline combat roles. This significant change in policy not only opens as many as 237,000 new jobs for female soldiers but also allows women to achieve higher leadership positions within the army.  While critics have argued that the decision will alter group dynamics and unit cohesion, it marks a significant step for the women who have been seeking equity in one of America’s most male dominated institutions. The Wikigender team is currently running a quick fire poll to gauge the public’s opinion on the ruling, so be sure to make your voice heard.

Finally, there has been a steadily growing social media buzz over Girl Rising’s feature length film 10x10; which augments the pervasive power of education to change the lives of millions of girls across the world. The movement is attempting to break down the barriers that hinder girls from receiving education while highlighting the significant benefits it will bring to them and the global community. If you haven’t seen the trailer already, look no further!

Look forward to more Gender Equality and Well-being blogs in the coming weeks!

Robbie Lawrence

Wikichild Coordinator

@Wiki_child, @Wikiprogress, @Wikigender