WUNRN
Direct Link to 132-Page 2009 UN
Study:
A Plea for the Economic Empowerment of Women
26 October 2009
IDS Fellow, Professor Naila
Kabeer is the lead author of the 2009 United Nations World Survey on the Role of Women in Development.
The theme of the World Survey is ‘Women's Control over economic resources and access
to financial resources, including microfinance.'
Economic empowerment of women is critical
Development initiatives,
including the Millennium Development Goals, have begun to pay greater attention
to the importance of women's paid work but they continue to overlook their
unpaid contributions within the home. This Survey makes a strong plea for the
economic empowerment of women through promoting their access to the variety of
resources they need in order to balance their work and family lives in ways that
promote their own sense of wellbeing and dignity.
The Survey is wide-ranging and
covers many of the themes that are addressed in the IDS-hosted Research Programme
Consortium on Pathways of Women's Empowerment. These include the importance
of: women's access to economic assets and decent jobs; support for their unpaid
childcare responsibilities; investments in their human
capabilities; social protection measures that address gender-specific
forms of vulnerability; and the ability to participate in decision-making
processes within their families and communities. In addition, the report argues
that women need to be better represented in the structures of governance at
national and international levels.
Lead author, Professor Kabeer
said, ‘This report is very timely. Across the world there is a growing
realisation of the critical importance of gender equality in processes of
economic growth. The global financial crisis has revealed the importance of
hearing a much wider range of voices on the way our economies are run. A key
message of the report is that policies which strengthen women's control over
critical resources will have direct implications for both their empowerment and
for broader processes of development. Locating these policies within a
framework of rights will ensure that such control is part of their entitlements
as citizens rather than being left to the discretion of male providers, the
largesse of the state, or the vagaries of the market'.
World Survey launch
The Survey will be launched at
the UN headquarters in New York on 26 October 2009. Professor Kabeer will
present an overview of the publication at the panel discussion on that date,
during the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly.
The World Survey on the Role of
Women in Development is the flagship publication of the United Nations Division
for the Advancement of Women. It is presented to the Second Committee of the
General Assembly at five-yearly intervals. The General Assembly requested the
Secretary-General to update the World Survey on the Role of Women in
Development for the consideration of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth
session; noting that the survey should continue to focus on selective emerging
development themes that have an impact on the role of women in the economy at
the national, regional and international levels.
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