Women Status in the Developing World | Daily Writeups | Opinions
The following article, “The Status of Women in the Developing World: A Gloomy Tale”, is written by Quratulain Babar, a student of Sir Syed Kazim Ali. Moreover, the article is written on the same pattern, taught by Sir to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. Sir Kazim has uploaded his students’ solved past paper questions so other thousands of aspirants can understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.
Since the nineteenth century, women have achieved significant progress in the economic and socio-political sphere in the West, including North America, Europe, and Australia. These nations are committed to providing socioeconomic opportunities to women. To illustrate, young women in the United States and Europe are as likely as young men to acquire a college degree. Contrarily, in the developing world, women remain more or less subjugated, and, in some countries, they are stripped of any human rights, as is evident from their poor socioeconomic status. For instance, women are constantly facing utter violence and abuse in their households, resulting from their subordinate positions and prevailing patriarchal norms. Moreover, women are not allowed by law to own property in many developing countries, further dampening their economic and social prospects. Further, they are killed in the name of honour, and this transgression is supported by cultural norms and even laws of many countries. This indicates that women in the developing world have become victims of socio-cultural norms, hindering their socioeconomic progress and legal empowerment.
Explaining women’s standing before delving deep into the gloomy tale of their status in developing countries, the role of women in nourishing a society and nation-building is indisputable. Throughout history, the central role of women in society has ensured the stability, progress, and long-term socioeconomic development of nations. Verily, they provide support, care, and nurturing to their families, which are essential for the development of children, ultimately leading to the betterment of society. According to the United Nations Women’s Watch Organization, rural women play a crucial role in supporting their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition security, generating income, and improving rural livelihoods and overall well-being. Besides this, the importance of women in the workforce is undeniable, as they share 45.4% of the global workforce. Their formal and informal labour can transform a community from a relatively autonomous society to a participant in the national economy. Thus, this indicates that women are the backbone of societies and nations and are indispensable for their development and progress.
Despite the role of women as a catalyst of societal development, the socioeconomic status of women in developing countries is abysmal. For instance, the exploitation and abuse of women, including outright violence, are acceptable in the developing world, where women have an inferior social status by customary or formal law. Such a situation of women is the direct corollary of their subordinate status that is strengthened by the prevailing primitive culture, having beliefs, norms, and social institutions that legitimize and perpetuate violence against women. As a result, women in these countries tend to accept their inferior status and adopt the traditional values of submission and servility. According to a study conducted in Algeria and Morocco by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), domestic violence is justified when a woman disobeys her husband. Hence, this shows that women in the developing world are the sufferers of social subjugation in their households.
Apart from the outright violence, women in the developing world are also deprived of their property rights. Undoubtedly, access to land is crucial in many African countries where subsistence farming is the main source of livelihood. In such countries, including Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia, women usually lose their land when they are widowed because their entitlement to the land is founded on their marriage. According to the customary law in these countries, they gain access to their husband’s land through marriage but do not gain property rights. Moreover, when they are unmarried, they have access to their parents’ land as long as their parents are alive. So, the absence of women’s right to property further results in an abject poverty for women and their children. Thus, customary law in developing countries gives women the same status as goods or cattle.
Another predicament faced by the women of the developing world is honor killing. Most often, it involves the murder of a woman or a girl by male family members due to the perpetrators’ belief that the victim has brought dishonour or shame upon the family name, reputation, or prestige. It has been taking place for thousands of years and continues to be practiced, particularly amongst the communities from Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean countries. According to the “Violence Against Women: Facts and Figures”, the UNIFEM report, more than one thousand women are killed in Pakistan every year for dishonouring their families. Moreover, honour killings are legal in some countries; for example, Article 340 of Jordanian law permits the murder of women in the name of honour. These stats thus depict the deplorable state of women in developing countries.
Moreover, dowry-related subjugation is prevalent predominantly in South Asia. It is regarded as the bride’s contribution to the marriage because she is unlikely to have paid employment. Even when the dowry is paid, the woman-in-law may continue to blackmail her family for additional payments and kill her if their demands are not met. According to the UNIFEM report, “Violence Against Women,” almost fifteen thousand dowry-related deaths are estimated per year in India, most of them in kitchen fires designed to look like accidents. Consequently, the heavy cost of providing a dowry makes many parents prefer sons to daughters, turning a son into an asset and a daughter into a liability. This further leads to the proliferation of female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. Hence, dowry in developing countries has resulted in the social subjugation of women.
Besides this, in developing countries, girls are exploited at an early age. They are denied their childhood, education, and chance to secure a sustainable livelihood. Their freedom and autonomy are being curtailed, leaving them socially isolated and vulnerable to ongoing violence, exploitation, and abuse throughout their lives. Sold, lured, tricked, and coerced, they are forced into prostitution, child labour, domestic servitude, and forced marriage, often with older men. To illustrate, an extreme case is Nepal, where 7% of girls are married forcefully before the age of ten and 40% by fifteen. This problem is acute because of the numerous risks from pregnancy-related complications for girls who are not physiologically ready to bear a child. Thus, girls are being exploited every day in ways that are also hazardous to their health and well-being.
Moreover, despite the more significant expansion of education opportunities worldwide during the past few decades, women’s education in most developing countries is dismal. To elaborate, in these countries, female children are being treated as inferior to male children, and parents consider it a waste of time, money, and energy to send their female children to school. No less importantly, the failure of the government to promote primary education in a developing country reflects education inequality based on gender, and the gender gap is much higher at the enrolment level than at primary and secondary levels. For example, one-third of girls in South Asia remain excluded from educational opportunities, with only a quarter of them gaining access to primary schooling. Thus, women in developing countries do not get primary education.
In addition, there are many obstacles to women’s economic development in developing countries as they face regulatory, social, and cultural inequalities in accessing employment opportunities. According to the “Women’s Wage Employment in Developing Countries: Regulatory Barriers and Opportunities” report by USAID, the mobility, agency, and decision-making power of women in developing countries is restricted by law, reducing their ability to seek wage employment. Further, gender inequalities in civil and administrative laws limit women’s opportunities to seek and retain work outside their homes. In some countries, the husband has the right to prevent his wife from seeking employment, which ultimately can exclude women from the labour force. Due to all such barriers, women are more likely to live in poverty, have less decision-making power in the home, and are less likely to engage in leadership roles in civil society. Thus, developing countries limit women from entering, remaining, and advancing in the formal sector workforce.
Regarding the political participation of women, like in other socioeconomic spheres, their status is not satisfactory. Although clear progress is evident in universal female suffrage and some countries led by female leaders, the progress is slow and uneven. For instance, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report, women comprise less than 23% of parliamentarians, with an average of 18% in the Arab region. In comparison, men make up more than 77%, leaving a more than 50% gender gap. Unfortunately, attitudes towards women candidates are still primarily characterized by deeply ingrained stereotypes.
However, some international organizations have taken specific measures to address the suffering of women. For instance, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a project of the United Nations (UN), is aimed to achieve gender equality by 2030. Moreover, the United Nations Foundation, an organization that supports the UN, has established a funding vehicle – ‘the WithHer Fund’ – to provide flexible funds to the local, high-impact, frontline, and grassroots-level women’s rights organizations that have been tackling gender-based violence (GBV), particularly violation against women and girls in their communities. In addition, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has introduced its gender operational plan that fully aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Further, various efforts have been made to decrease honour killing incidences, including the work of international organizations (e.g., World Health Organization) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to improve women’s status in developing countries.
To critically evaluate the status of women in the developing world, it is the lack of legal protection that contributes to the socioeconomic subjugation of women. To elaborate, it is the gap between customary law and formal law – whether related to land ownership, honour killing, dowry, education, or job employment – that leaves women helpless and confused about their actual rights. For example, in Guatemala, one law article provides for the equality of spouses in civil marriages; however, another article declares that the husband represents the household. Such sort of confusion prevails in many developing countries. Thus, to improve the situation of women in these countries, the respective governments must take hold by sitting in the driving seat and providing constitutional protection to women; otherwise, the efforts of international organizations would be useless.
To cut a long story short, the status of women in developing countries is very disappointing. In all walks of life – social, economic, and political – their rights are violated, and their progress is curtailed. To exemplify, they face domestic violence, dowry-related subjugation, educational constraints, and early marriages, which makes their very existence a mere question on the planet Earth, especially its developing states part. For the socioeconomic well-being of developing countries, it is essential to consider women fruitful human beings and empower them wholeheartedly. As stated by Kofi Anan,
“There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole than the one which involves women as a central player.”
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