Beijing Platform for Action, Chapter II: Global Framework – Paragraphs 21 & 22
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/10
21. Women are key contributors to the economy and to combating poverty through both remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the workplace. Growing numbers of women have achieved economic independence through gainful employment.
22. One fourth of all households world wide are headed by women and many other households are dependent on female income even where men are present. Female-maintained households are very often among the poorest because of wage discrimination, occupational segregation patterns in the labour market and other gender-based barriers. Family disintegration, population movements between urban and rural areas within countries, international migration, war and internal displacements are factors contributing to the rise of female-headed households.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The basic nature of equality is enunciated in a variety of ethical doctrines, whether ingrained through religious upbringing, in many circumstances, or taught in postsecondary education through training in the rights of persons. The basic notion or sentiment is an expanded sphere of concern, consideration, and compassion into the world of women rather than simply the touted world of legalities and literalist religious statements about men as owners, women as owned, and the world to be dominated instead of nurtured and tended to – as if an organism itself.
The 21st paragraph of the Beijing Declaration describes, succinctly, the basic nature of the role of women in the economic viability of a nation, where the economic stability and stable growth of a country are important for the “combating poverty” efforts. One powerful consciousness-raising effort could be in the recognition by the leaders, and the men, of the world of the idea that housework and childcare is work and deserves some form of remuneration including monetary.
The possibility for a variety of education-guarded, or not, work opportunities remain integral for the financial or economic independence of women. These provide less power-over by the men compared to the women.
Now, paragraph 22 remarks on an incredible statistic about 1/4 households, when taking the international statistics into account, around the world are headed by women. This does not seem as if a commonly held fact or piece of knowledge. These also coincide with the fact that even many male-headed households are dependent on female income, in the case, I assume, of the dual-income households.
Among the households that are the poorest, you will, almost inevitably, find the women-lead homes as the poorest in the world. There are a variety of known reasons for this. Some involve issues around the disproportionate impacts of the structural adjustment programs on women as well as the fewer social services for the poor, mostly women, when there are excess societal resources spent on the military budget on wasteful wars.
This can lead to consequences of wage discrimination and then the occupational segregation patterns too. These are found inside of the labor market. These also connect to a variety of other gender-based barriers. Now, the consequences of poverty are also likely to lead to women becoming single parents or the heads of the household. One of which is family disintegration in poor areas.
Other events that can cause programs from within a nation are international migration and war. Bearing in mind, these are still relevant, and in the case of migration in particular, increasing problems. Then the instability of poorer nations, usually, is also an issue leading to further consequences of women leading homes.
These have ripple effects for many, many years because the children from these situations are left to be raised with far fewer resources than others within the world, such as those with two educated parents who are income-earners. It is the comparison there, which is the most striking. But again, the world’s poor are women; the most poverty-stricken families, and often probably least considered by the policies and programs for the international economic system, are women-headed families.
Because the poverty for women is global with a series of known sources, where these simply do not impact men as much; there should be robust international programs put in place in order to reduce the impact on women from poverty and, as a result, increasing the health and wealth of societies over time and, in fact, the wellness of families, children, and communities.
–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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