Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty
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PROGRESS OF THE WORLD’S WOMEN2005 ||| WOMEN|WORK|&|POVERTY Martha Chen • Joann Vanek • Francie Lund • James Heintz with Renana Jhabvala • Christine Bonner UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality. Placing the advancement of women’s human rights at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses on reducing feminized poverty; ending violence against women; reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and achiev- ing gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UNIFEM, the United Nations or any of its affiliated organizations. Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty Copyright © 2005 United Nations Development Fund for Women ISBN: 1-932827-26-9 United Nations Development Fund for Women 304 East 45th Street, 15th floor New York, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-906-6400 Fax: 212-906-6705 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.unifem.org On the cover: Indigenous woman, home-based seamstress, Roraima Province, Brazil. Photo: Gerd Ludwig/Panos PROGRESS OF THE WORLD’S WOMEN 2005 WOMEN|WORK|&|POVERTY Martha Chen • Joann Vanek • Francie Lund • James Heintz with Renana Jhabvala • Christine Bonner Advisory Team Debbie Budlender Noeleen Heyzer Community Agency for Social Enquiry Executive Director Cape Town, South Africa UNIFEM New York, NY, USA Diane Elson University of Essex Selim Jahan Colchester, Essex Bureau of Development Policy - UNDP United Kingdom New York, NY, USA Guadalupe Espinosa Francesca Perucci Institute of Social Development UN Statistics Division Mexico City, Mexico New York, NY, USA Anne Trebilcock ILO Geneva, Switzerland 2005 Data Analysis Teams Canada: Ghana: Leah Vosko and Sylvia Fuller James Heintz 2 York University Political Economy Research Institute Toronto University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mass. Costa Rica: Jesper Venema India: ILO Regional Office Jeemol Unni Panama City National Commission for Enterprises in the Progress of the World’s Women of the World’s Progress Unorganized Sector Egypt: New Delhi Mona Amer and Alia El Mahdi University of Cairo South Africa: Cairo Daniela Casale, Colette Muller, Dorrit Posel University of KwaZulu Natal El Salvador: Durban Edgar Lara López, Reinaldo Chanchán, Sara Gammage Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo San Salvador Editor: Karen Judd, UNIFEM Consulting Editor: Gloria Jacobs Copyeditors: Tina Johnson, Anna Grossman Production: Barbara Adams, Nanette Braun, Jennifer Cooper, Heather Tilbury, UNIFEM Design: VanGennep Design Cover design: Cynthia Rhett Printing: ProGraphics Contents 5 Acknowledgements 6 Preface 8 Overview: Women, Work and Poverty 14 Chapter 1: Employment and Poverty Reduction Poverty and Gender Inequality in the 21st Century Employment in the 21st Century Employment in the MDGs and PRSPs Organization of this Report 22 Chapter 2: The Totality of Women’s Work Understanding and Measuring Women’s Work Mapping Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work The Dynamics of Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work Gender and Other Sources of Disadvantage: Implications for Poverty Reduction 36 Chapter 3: Employment, Gender and Poverty Informal Employment: Definition and Recent Data Millennium Development Goal 3: Recommended Employment Indicators Labour Force Segmentation, Earnings and Poverty: Developed Country Data Labour Force Segmentation, Earnings and Poverty: New Data from Developing Countries Labour Markets and Labour Force Statistics Contents Table Notes 3 58 Chapter 4: The Reality of Women’s Informal Work Nature of Informal Work Benefits of Informal Work Costs of Informal Work Close-up: Occupational Groups A Causal Model of the Informal Economy Poverty, Gender and Informal Employment 74 Chapter 5: Women’s Organizing in the Informal Economy Benefits of Organizing Identifying as Workers Strategies and Forms of Organizing Influencing Policy Decisions: National, Regional and International Networks and Alliances The Next Stage 86 Chapter 6: A Framework for Policy and Action Policy Debates on the Informal Economy Framework for Policy and Action Close-up: Good Practice Cases The Way Forward 105 References Cited 111 About the Authors 112 Index Tables and Figures 28 Table 2.1: Risks and vulnerabilities associated with employment at different stages of the life cycle 40 Table 3.1: Wage and self-employment in non-agricultural informal employment by sex, 1994/2000 45 Table 3.2: Percentage distribution of women’s and men’s informal employment by employment status 46 Table 3.3: Percentage distribution of women’s and men’s formal employment by type 47 Table 3.4: Hourly earnings as a percentage of the hourly earnings of formal, private, non- agricultural wage workers by employment status category 48 Table 3.5: 2005 Average wages per worker and women’s share of employment for small and microenterprises by size, Egypt, 2003 (expressed in 2002 Egyptian pounds) 48 Table 3.6: 4 Women’s hourly earnings as a percentage of men’s hourly earnings 49 Table 3.7: Hourly earnings in selected employment status categories, Ghana (in cedis and purchasing power parity adjusted U.S. dollars) 50 Table 3.8: Progress of the World’s Women of the World’s Progress Average weekly hours of work by sex and employment status 50 Table 3.9: Total hours worked per week in employment and unpaid care work, employed population (15+), Ghana, 1998/1999 51 Table 3.10: Working poor as a percentage of employment (15+) in selected employment statuses by sex, 2003, El Salvador 52 Table 3.11: Relative poverty rates: working poor poverty rates by sex and employment status category and formal and informal employment, as a percentage of the poverty rate for formal, private non-agricultural wage workers 53 Table 3.12: Poverty rates by household type, South Africa, 2003 53 Table 3.13: Poverty rates among persons in households sustaining themselves on informal income, urban India, 1999/2000 54 Figure 3.1: Segmentation of Informal Employment by Average Earnings and Sex 54 Figure 3.2: Poverty Risk of Households by Sources of Income 54 Figure 3.3: Poverty Risk of Households by Primary Source of Income Acknowledgements The authors are deeply grateful to UNIFEM for CASE in South Africa; Diane Elson, coordinator of commissioning this report on informal employ- UNIFEM’s first Progress of the World’s Women in ment and the working poor, especially women, 2000; and Guadalupe Espinoza, former UNIFEM and their importance in efforts to eliminate Regional Programme Director in Mexico provided poverty. In particular, we want to express our many helpful comments. Ralf Hussmanns of the gratitude to Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, ILO provided statistical guidance and Francesca for her leadership, her interest and expertise on Perucci of the UN Statistics Division provided issues of women, work and poverty, and for her additional statistical inputs. Other ILO staff with substantive and financial support, without which whom we consulted include Amy King-DeJardin, the report would not have been possible. Marie-Thérèse DuPré, Rakawin Lee, Katarina We would also like to acknowledge Joanne Tsotroudi, María Elena Valenzuela, Linda Wirth Sandler, UNIFEM Deputy Director for Programme and Sylvester Young. for her inputs and support and Meagan Bovell, Very special thanks are due to the members Nisreen Alami, Leyla Sharafe and Ellen Houston of the Data Analysis Teams who carried out the in UNIFEM’s Economic Security and Rights sec- data analysis in seven countries for Chapter 3. tion for research support. Special thanks are due Special thanks also to WIEGO team members to Karen Judd, UNIFEM editor, and Gloria Marais Canali, who compiled references, wrote Jacobs, consulting editor, who provided valuable some of the good practice cases and assisted Acknowledgements inputs and shepherded the report to completion. the authors throughout; Shalini Sinha, who Other UNIFEM staff with whom we consult- worked closely with the authors on Chapter 5; ed include Meenakshi Ahluwalia, Aileen Allen, Anna Marriott, Cally Ardington and Kudzai 5 Letty Chiwara, Nazneen Damji, Sandra Edwards, Makomva, who assisted with research for differ- Eva Fodor, Chandi Joshi, Yelena Kudryavtseva, ent chapters; and Suzanne Van Hook, who man- Osnat Lubrani, Lucita Lazo, Firoza Mehrotra, Zina aged the contracts for the data analysis team. Mounla, Natasha Morales, Sunita Narain, Grace Others in the WIEGO network who were consult- Okonji, Teresa Rodriguez, Amelia Kinahoi ed on the cases studies featured in Chapters 5 Siamoumua, Damira Sartbaeva, Alice Shackelford, and 6 include Kofi Asamoah, Stephanie Stephanie Urdang, Marijke Velzeboer-Salcedo. Barrientos, Ela Bhatt, Mirai Chatterjee, Nicole Thanks also to UNIFEM interns Michael Montiel Constable, Dan Gallin, Pat Horn, Elaine Jones, and Inés Tófalo for translation of material in Paula Kantor, Martin Medina, Winnie Mitullah, Spanish and to Marie-Michele Arthur and Tracy Pun Ngai, Fred Pieterson, Jennefer Sebstad, Carvalho for their management of contracts and and Lynda Yanz. payments. Finally, we would like to thank the working We would also like to express our thanks to poor women and men around the world who the UNDP and the ILO for both substantive inspire our work. advice and additional financial support. In addi- tion, Selim Jahan of UNDP and Anne Trebilcock Martha Chen, Joann Vanek, Francie Lund, of the ILO served on the Advisory Team and pro- James Heintz, Renana Jhabvala, vided valuable comments. Debbie Budlender, of and Christine Bonner Preface The modern global economy is now a reality. Yet informal employment comprises from 50 to 80 everywhere in the world, there are people work- per cent of total non-agricultural employment. ing in conditions that should no longer exist in When agricultural workers such as coffee har- this 21st century, for income that is barely vesters or cocoa growers who are unable to enough for survival. Home-based workers put compete in the world market are included, the in long hours each day, yet are paid for only a percentage of informal workers is dramatically fraction of their time.