DOUBLE JEOPARDY VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY Glossary Contents Civil society International financial institutions Executive Summary .............................................................................04 The arena outside the family, the state and the Institutions that financially support economic and market, in which individuals, groups, organisations social development activities in developing countries Actionaid's recommendations .................................................................................................................................05 and institutions engage in voluntary actions and forms through the provision of grants and loans. International of public participation to advance shared interests, financial institutions include public banks, such as the purposes and values, including exercising their World Bank, International Monetary Fund and regional 1. Violence against women and women's 1 democratic right to participate in decision making. development banks. economic inequality: joining the dots ........................................... 06 Civil society space Macroeconomics A common root ..................................................................................................................................06 The environment in which civil society operates, and Macroeconomic policies are economic policies affecting in which exist the relationships and opportunities for the operation of the economy as a whole, at either A self-reinforcing cycle: how VAWG and women's economic inequality intersect ..............................07 interaction among civil society actors, the state, private national or international level, and which shape the Expressions of patriarchy ...................................................................................................................08 sector and the general public, as well as the laws, availability and distribution of resources. As such, they norms and frameworks that govern these. reflect and determine key economic, political and social Government commitments to eliminating VAWG and fulfilling women's economic rights ..................10 considerations, including exchange and interest rates, banking and foreign exchange reserves, and regulation Economic abuse of the financial sector. Macroeconomic policies include Causing or attempting to cause an individual to become 2. Ancient origins, modern manifestations ..................................12 fiscal and monetary policy, as well as trade, investment, financially dependent on another person by obstructing labour market and industrial policies.6 their access to or control over resources and/or Global trends affecting women's lives .................................................................................................12 independent economic activity.2 Patriarchy Decent work matters ..........................................................................................................................14 The unequal power relations between women and Economic empowerment men that prevail in every country in the world, whereby Economic empowerment is the capacity of women and women are systematically disadvantaged and 3. Case studies ..................................................................................... 17 men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from oppressed. Patriarchy is manifest in almost every sphere growth processes in ways that recognise the value of of life and can be seen, for instance, in women’s under Starved of funds, lack of revenue hampers efforts to tackle VAWG in Uganda ...................................17 their contributions, respect their dignity and make it representation in decision making and their economic possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits Escaping violence for a better life, Ayet's story ...................................................................................17 inequality. Patriarchy also intersects with other forms of growth. Economic empowerment increases women’s of identity-based oppression, such as those based on access to economic resources and opportunities Out of fashion, the ugly reality of Cambodia's garment industry .........................................................19 race, class, sexual orientation, religion, age, migrant including jobs, financial services, property and other status etc. productive assets, skills development and market Standing up for rights, Savan's story .................................................................................................20 3 information. Enduring or living? Young urban women in India's informal economy ................................................22 Structural violence Structural violence refers to systematic ways in which In the name of development. The Suape Industrial Port Complex, Brazil ...........................................24 Economic violence social, political or economic structures or systems Acts such as the denial of funds, refusal to contribute cause physical or psychological harm, or otherwise financially, denial of food and basic needs, and Opportunity Lost? Scarlett's story ......................................................................................................25 disadvantage individuals.7 controlling access to health care, employment, etc.4 4. Conclusions and recommendations .............................................27 Fundamentalisms Violence against women and girls The strategic deployment of extreme ideology in order (VAWG) / gender-based violence Recommendations .............................................................................................................................28 to secure political power and control over people and Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or communities, without respect to human rights. Religious is likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats fundamentalisms are referred to in particular in this Annex – methodological note ............................................................ 30 report, which can include extreme ideologies linked of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, 8 (by those who believe in them) to any faith, including whether occurring in public or in private life. VAWG Description of indicators and their sources ........................................................................................30 Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam or Buddhism. also impacts negatively upon women’s opportunities to Fundamentalist ideologies seek to exclude, castigate, or achieve legal, social, political and economic equality in society. violently punish those whose views fail to rigidly conform References ............................................................................................32 to them.5 All fundamentalisms tend to target women for ideological and material control. Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................................40 02 Executive summary Every day, women around the world are Daunting as the challenges appear, the • Uphold the corporate responsibility to respect human ACTIONAID'S rights by undertaking gender-sensitive human rights making an invaluable contribution to the good news is that what is created by choice RECOMMENDATIONS due diligence around actual and potential impacts of global economy through their paid and can equally be dismantled and replaced. company activities. unpaid labour. Far too often, their work is Encouragingly, both issues are rising up Governments should: • Ensure the participation of affected women and girls poorly paid, invisible and precarious, carried the international development agenda, in identifying risks and impacts of investment, and • Prioritise and fully implement all international out against a backdrop of harassment creating new opportunities to open up the ensure access to remedy and redress where harmful commitments on eliminating violence against impacts have occurred. and the threat of violence. One in three debate and reveal the links between the women and girls and fulfilling their economic rights. women globally will experience violence in two issues. Injustices that were previously • Pay a fair share of tax; refrain from using strategies to • Develop National Action Plans to implement the UN artificially minimise corporate tax burdens, and from their lifetimes.9 The enduring presence of in the shadows – such as VAWG and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, suing governments using international trade deal these twin injustices – women’s economic women’s disproportionate responsibility including multi-stakeholder consultation, resourcing clauses. implementation and community grievance inequality and violence against women for unpaid care – now have pride of place mechanisms. • Adopt innovative approaches to ensure the promotion and girls (VAWG) – are a manifestation of in the Sustainable Development Goals.10 of women into leadership positions, including quotas • Uphold women’s rights to decent work and end the and gender-transformative mentoring and training. the global community’s failure thus far to This achievement is just the latest result of exploitation of women’s work, both paid and unpaid, tackle the systemic and structural causes of the efforts of women’s rights organisations in the formal and informal sector, and protect their sexual and reproductive