Questions and Answers: Gender

1. Young women are particularly disadvantaged, even powerless, in many poor countries. What does the report have to say about them?
2. Does your report deal with the problems specific to young women?
3. What does the report say about young women migrating to be "entertainment workers"?
4. The report talks about increasing young women's ability to make choices, but how can their voice be increased in societies where they are second-class citizens?

1. Young women are particularly disadvantaged, even powerless, in many poor countries. What does the report have to say about them?

Gender-defined roles and responsibilities often curtail girls' opportunities and decision-making capabilities, and gender inequalities tend to emerge sharply during youth with the onset of puberty. Early (or forced) marriage and childbearing can limit opportunities for young women, for example by restricting access to education. Lack of bargaining power is correlated with health risks, such as coerced sex, domestic violence, and female genital mutilation.

Although the trend has been towards convergence across gender, more effort is needed to counter the inequalities in opportunities, capabilities and second chances. The report highlights a number of promising interventions. Broad-based, gender-neutral investments such as building schools or roads - as in Pakistan and Bangladesh - can increase schooling opportunities more for girls by improving access and enhancing their safety while traveling outside their community.

Providing incentives to change parents' behavior is also effective. The Bangladesh Female Secondary School Stipend program provides a stipend to parents on the condition that their daughters remain in school and unmarried. In South Asia, there are efforts to strengthen girls' decision-making capabilities by providing specific courses in schools as well as encouraging discussion.

Abortion and emergency contraception are essential for young women who experience unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Although this may be controversial in many countries, we cannot ignore the millions of young women who undergo unsafe and illicit abortions that place their lives and health at grave risk.

The report recommends policies that increase opportunities for girls, provide knowledge and skills to enhance capabilities and bargaining power, and provide second chances to overcome the negative consequences of past actions and injustices. Because gender issues are rooted in social norms, the report recommends involving not just girls themselves, but also parents, teachers, care-givers and the community.

 

2. Does your report deal with the problems specific to young women?

• Early Marriage, Forced Marriage, Dowries: Yes, but dowries only incidentally.
• Genital Mutilation: Yes, especially since it is increases obstetric risks, especially for young women.
• Birth Control. Abortion: Yes. These issues are prominent in chapters 5 and 6
• Harassment, coerced sex (in Africa, with teachers): Yes.
• Tolerated Rape, and rape laws (e.g., Pakistan) : Yes, coerced / forced sex and rape, but not "rape laws."
• Forced prostitution. No
• Stigma of HIV associated with women. There is no evidence that the stigma associated with HIV infection is any greater among women than men.
• Unequal pay: No, as this is not specifically a youth issue, although we do talk about differential access to jobs and training in chapter 4 and in the gender spotlight.
• Lack of property rights: Yes, in chapter 7.

3. What does the report say about young women migrating to be "entertainment workers"?

This is a serious problem for some young women, especially those who are denied opportunities at home, and feel that they have better opportunities abroad. For some young women, of course, this is not a completely free choice - there is at least anecdotal evidence of kidnapping and forced servitude - in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Eastern Europe. The report mentions these issues in chapter 8, on migration. The solution is not to make the behavior illegal and in the process turn these young women into criminals, but to provide attractive and sustainable alternative opportunities for sustainable livelihoods at home. And for those who truly want to migrate to engage in this type of work, provide information and services to make it as safe as possible, most importantly to protect them from HIV infection.

 

4. The report talks about increasing young women's ability to make choices, but how can their voice be increased in societies where they are second-class citizens?

This is clearly not an easy task, nor one that can be accomplished immediately. But it is possible. The report presents evidence of programs that have increased voice and opportunities for young women in many countries. Interventions can be designed to inform people of their rights, and to provide them with opportunities to affect as well as exercise these rights. There has been some success with the legal set-asides for local representation in India (the Panchayat Raj). Participants in the Women's Empowerment Program in Nepal were more likely than non-participants to initiate community development activities and campaigns against domestic violence, alcohol and gambling, had more influence in household expenditures, and better understood the importance of keeping their daughters in school.