Debt and Women
Produced by ActionAid, Jubilee Debt Campaign,
Oxfam, and Womankind Worldwide
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Introduction
Poor countries around the world are crippled by the
‘debts’ they have to pay to rich countries; the impact on women and
girls is particularly brutal. These debts worsen poverty by forcing
poor countries to give money to the rich, even though many of the
debts are of dubious origin, so-called ‘illegitimate debts’.
The debt crisis has its origin in loans given in the
70s and 80s: many loans were given recklessly to oppressive or
corrupt regimes by rich governments in return for support in the
Cold War; others arose through unfair loan terms; yet others were
given by private companies in return for contracts which were often
overpriced and of little value to the borrowers. But the rich world
ignores its responsibility for poor countries’ debt crises, either
continuing to demand payment or only cancelling debts on their own
very restricted terms.
Globally, women and girls are more likely to be poor
and disadvantaged. They are routinely excluded from decision-making
at all levels, and have almost no independent control over
resources: only 1% of the world’s land and property belongs to
women. Less likely to be educated than men, many women are totally
dependent on their husbands, and live with the daily threat of
socially-condoned violence. Despite this systematic discrimination,
societies worldwide depend on the skills, work and knowledge of
women to weather poverty: finding food to put on the table, caring
for the sick, and bringing up the next generation.
Date of original publication: January 2007
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