When we speak of the “poorest of the poor”, we often refer to women. Poor men in the developing world have even poorer wives and children.
And there is no doubt that recession, debt crises and structural adjustment policies have placed the heaviest burden on poor women who earn less, own less and control less.
A woman is usually the first to get up in the morning and the last to go to sleep at night. Women around the world carry double loads: caring for the home and family and working in factories, fields, shops, offices and other people’s homes.
Women are one-third of the world’s labour force, but they tend to be employed in lower paid occupations than men. Just as society undervalues the work women do in homes, so also their skills are undervalued in paid employment.
Women sometimes encounter gender discrimination in various fields. One of such obstacles is the economic opportunities and access to credit and financial facilities.
In the political realm, political officeholders often marginalise women in lopsided appointments. In the socio-cultural realm, women also suffer from sexual harassment, gender tokenism, early marriage, high illiteracy rate, discrimination, domestic violence, single-women stigma and the harassment of widows in family matters. Women are especially affected by the current inadequacy of healthcare facilities and high infant mortality.
Mostly, their effort is unrecognised and undervalued, and they are lower paid than men. Yet global economic changes, structural adjustment policies, the growing power of transnational corporations and the economic crises in many poor countries are forcing more women to enter the labour force to support themselves and their families.
It is women who bear the brunt of managing poverty, often reducing their own consumption to protect their children and partners from the fangs of hunger. Not only is not recognition given to the way the unpaid labour women contribute to the living standards of the family, but also there is no recognition of the very low material reward that women receive in return for their work.
Women workers are the ones who often undertake household chores: washing, gathering wood, feeding the children and sending them to school, collection of water, cooking and washing dishes.
The family should radiate natural love, respect, selflessness and sacrifice and should build on sound morals, obedience and responsibility, care of children and of the elderly, as well as respect for elders and weaker members of the family; sharing and caring in social cohesion.
Aliyu Umar is the acting Head of Strategic Communications at the Bureau of Public Service Reforms.
