Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care

An evaluation of the consideration of care in conceptualizations of women’s economic empowerment

Deepta Chopra, Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Priya Raghavan

A Review of the Literature: Composite Definition

Improving women’s access to economic resources and income through enhancement of economic opportunities and participation in the labour market, and increasing women’s agency and control over household resources and decision making

A Review of the Literature: Key Debates

process vs goal approach

aims and targets vs institutions and structures

creation of opportunities vs removal of constraints

instrumental vs substantive

individualized vs collective

Resultant strategies and programmesLogic of WEE: access to financial resources -> higher decision-making/ social household standing -> empowerment through economic participation

Provision of paid work: public works, job creation, labour force expansion. Eg: MGNREGA India

Facilitation of paid work: education, training, savings. Eg: SEWA, India

Enabling environment: structural provisions such as legislation, frameworks and collective action. Eg:

Employment and Labour Relations Act, Tanzania

What is CareMeeting the material and/or developmental,

emotional and spiritual needs of other people through direct personal relationships

Care has a widespread, long-term, positive impact on wellbeing and development, it underpins all development policy & is critical to ensuring sustainable economic empowerment of women and girls & addressing inequality and vulnerability.

Why Care in WEEWEE is not simply about labour force participation,

but also about the choice to work, the choice of sector, location and working hours

Care obligations impacts the type, location and nature of paid work that women and girls can undertake Women forced to assume informal, insecure poorly paid

roles Correlation between women’s stages of life and entry into

the labour force

Locating Care in WEE LiteratureCare considerations entirely invisible in a

majority of WEE conceptualizations (exceptions being secondary consideration in OECD, 2011 and Tornqvist and Schmitz, 2009)

Most conceptualizations oriented towards an ideal/ imagined ideal of economic participation without grounding themselves sufficiently in the development reality of women, resulting in the creation of a double burden

Implications of Ignoring Care in WEEFailure to consider care translates to un-

situated policies and programmes with outcomes that are limited individualised unsustainable

Potential Entry Points for CareWEE literature contains remote allusions to

care that provide potential entry points Removal of barriers to entry Enhancing access Recognizing the value of unpaid contributions Improving labour market conditions

Integrating Care with WEEBringing choice to the center of WEE through a consideration of care:

Expanding women’s choices of where to work, sector, location and type of work while creating a double boon: paid work that empowers women at the same time through strategies that

Recognize care and care work

Reduce difficult, inefficient tasks

Redistribute responsibilities

Represent women in planning

How will this translate to better policies/ outcomes?Support for unpaid care work will:

Optimise women’s economic participation, by enabling them to work without deepening their time poverty

Share the gains of women’s economic empowerment across all females in the family

Sustain the gains of women’s economic empowerment across generations

Potential Policy Prescriptions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVW858gQHoE

Thank You!