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Who is who in today’s webinar?

Thalia Kidder Jing Pura Felipe Ramiro Jr.

Cailin CrockettThomas Tichar Dominic Ramirez

Welcome, everyone!

Gendered Enterprise and Markets (GEM): WOMEN’S ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP ACTION LEARNING

Webinar # 1

1. Our Action Learning – principles & process2. Ideas to agree – households, women’s agency3. Philippines Action Learning – an example4. Learning task – the headlines5. Azerbaijan Meeting July 1-7

Agenda for today’s webinar

Section 2: Ideas to agree a) Why households?b) What are households?c) Households & the economy, gendered household

analysis[Your Questions!]d) Households – negotiating power, women’s agencye) What changes in households with a new market

opportunity (enterprise)?[Your Questions!]

Agenda for today’s webinar (2)

1. Action Learning Principles Principles• Adults learn best in real processes• Learning exercises to improve program design

– When we ask new & different questions in ‘the field’…

– We gather new & different evidence …. – New evidence leads to new options, clarify

trade-offs (no perfect solutions)– Better choices about investments and

strategies• Field visits in multi-disciplinary teams allow us to

experience– Surprising, useful questions that people with

‘other’ expertise ask– Differing insights and perspectives– Higher quality strategies from debating

options & trade offs

An Overview of an Action Learning Process

The proposed process• Agree on concepts through

webinars• Several countries’ teams do the

same exercise to gather evidence• Present the findings visually• In workshop, give each other

constructive feedback…• Field visits provide good learning

for us and the host country

Why this Topic: Household and Women’s Agency

• Cambodia 2010: learning task to identify and prioritize barriers for women.

• Recent surveys of WEL programs: women do benefit from WEL/ GEM methodology-design of enterprise and markets programs

• Findings also show room to improve: to address dynamics of household-level gender relations

• Common challenge in implementation: dynamics between men and women in households… how to promote women’s agency?

Action Learning on WEL: May-July

• (Ask new questions)• Document (make visible) the current work of women & men in

households, gender roles, decision-making and women’s agency in different spaces of negotiation (new evidence)

• Document – in this context, what factors enable women’s agency, especially in households (new options)

In Azerbaijan• Design a new component(s) of our enterprise and markets programme

to promote women’s agency, especially at the household level (debate, make choices)

Section 2: Ideas to agree

What is considered a ‘household’?

• Not uniform … within or between countries-- Nuclear-- Extended (3+ generations)-- Several related families living on same landholding

• Thus, ‘women’ also not homogeneous … very different in terms of status and women’s agency within households

Why look at households in a market program?

• Impact: do women and families benefit from market development and market changes?-- Power relations influence who benefits; distribution of benefits depend on person’s age, status, influence within and definitely, gender

• Influence: gender roles and women’s agency within households lead to women & men’s different roles in product markets, market services

• Ensure sustainability of change: beyond women earning income; women’s economic leadership requires control over income, assets, decision-making and time

The household and the economy

SOURCES OF HOUSEHOLD (MATERIAL)

WELFARE

NATURAL RESOURCES

Household REPRODUCTIVE

or CARING WORK

SOCIAL NETWORKS(community work, barter)

STATE (education,

health, social security)

CASH MARKET

Household PRODUCTIVE

WORK/SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE

• Many economic activities happen in households, rendered especially by women.

• Goods and services for household’s material welfare derived from many parts of the economy, not only cash market.

New opportunity

‘Household’ in gendered market analysis

Resources, assets,time & labor

Attitudes, beliefs, norms about gender roles

The Household

Unpaid productive work

Risks

Unpaid caring work

Four dimensions of ‘households’ influence women’s and men’s participation and roles in markets

‘Household’ in gendered market analysis

Resources, assets, time &

labor

Attitudes, beliefs & norms

The Household Unpaid

productive work

Unpaid caring work

Four dimensions of ‘households’ influence women’s and men’s participation and roles in markets

= Reproductive work Part of local economy Provides what workforce needs

to function But UNPAID, UNDERVALUED! Caring work between men and

women unequal

‘Household’ in gendered market analysis

Resources, assets, time &

labor

Attitudes, beliefs & norms

The Household Unpaid productive

work

Unpaid caring work

Four dimensions of ‘households’ influence women’s and men’s participation and roles in markets

All agricultural work from seed propagation to selling.

Farm roles and tasks are also gendered, with women taking on substantive productive work, leading to time poverty.

Women also do non-market, subsistence work.

‘Household’ in gendered market analysis

Resources, assets, time &

labor

Attitudes, beliefs & norms on gendered

roles

The Household Unpaid

productive work

Unpaid caring work

Four dimensions of ‘households’ influence women’s and men’s participation and roles in markets

Women’s ‘natural’ abilities and roles: assume responsibility over family, risks, unexpected costs

Gendered norms reinforced by families, schools, religion, law, media.

‘Household’ in gendered market analysis

Resources, assets, time &

laborAttitudes, beliefs & norms

The Household Unpaid

productive work

Unpaid caring work

Four dimensions of ‘households’ influence women’s and men’s participation and roles in markets

Examples: land, skills, credit, natural resources and most critically, TIME and LABOUR in household.

Women’s and men’s control over resources are different.

Participatory Exercise

Which information is useful in examining household as a site for unpaid caring work?(a) ‘Char’ lands get flooded for 6 months in a year. Households diversify,

planting mainly maize, jute and chilli in their own or sharecropped lands and engaging in cow-rearing.

(b) Households earn the most from chilli farming. Women are predominantly in seed sorting, soaking and cleaning, weeding, harvesting and pre-processing (sorting and grading).

(c) Marketing is exclusive to men because women are restricted on account of their religion from going outside their community.

(d) Women start their day early and within the day cook, do laundry, feed their children and take care of needs of the elderly – even if they become sick.

Ideas about Household Economy and Negotiating Power

“Black box” - inputs & outcomes assumed of equal benefit for all

Cooperation and Conflict:

• Use of resources and benefits for each member are determined by her/his relative negotiating power

- -

(Relative) Negotiating Powersome influential factors...

Assets - “break down

position”

Present and Future Income

potential

Perception of your contribution

to the household economy:

Self perception and others’ perception

Knowledge, skills“power to”

New beliefs…Challenging

patriarchal norms

Self-confidenceTIME to think, consult, train,

explore…

Relative Negotiating Power and Women’s Agency

• Most women need increased negotiating power relative to men.

• Women’s agency: also determined by – Education, health status, organisation,

communications technology…– State repression, insecurity, politics, disasters,

laws, monopoly companies…• Both men & women may have little agency

(smallholders’ power in markets!)

Concept of human (women’s) agency

• Agency: women feeling (a growing) autonomy and control over what they can do. (Garcia-Dungo)

-- Human capacity for autonomy and self-determination –-- Human agency and social structures are interactive. Repetition of acts referred to as practices reproduce social structures. (Giddens)

• Women challenging patriarchal traditions… more than awareness… regularly negotiating, exercising power. Repeated negotiations lead to changes in gender relations in the household.

• Power: power within, power to, power with (power over)

Questions or comments?

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