Kooperation Utan Grnser/SCC

POLICY PAPER
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Policy Paper
GENDER EQUALITY AND
THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
Background
A majority of the worlds poor are women. Land, financial resources, technology etc. is
in general owned or controlled by men. Women are more often than men subjected to
hunger and malnutrition, in spite of the fact that women to a great extent are
economically active and work longer days than men as the main food producers in the
families. In Africa, for example, women in general carry out the majority of all
agricultural work. However, in most parts of the world, women are, more often than
men, subjected to high unemployment rates on the formal labour market.
According to the World Bank, gender related differences in access to resources are
greatest among the poorest of the poor. Gender-based differences as concerns poverty
levels occur due to womens lack of economic independence and their exclusion from
economic decision-making. Women are discriminated against today irrespective of age,
class, nationality, race and ethnicity. This discrimination is due to the prevailing
patriarchal structure and implies that womens knowledge, competence and abilities are
not utilised to its full potential. Countries that violate the rights of women sometimes
defend themselves by referring to local traditions and culture, religious requirements or
low levels of education.
Still, some progress has been achieved to reduce inequalities that affect women. In the
last 30 years, according to UNDP, gender differences in relation to health and education
have narrowed rapidly. Womens life expectancy has increased at a rate 20% higher
than mens life expectancy in the last two decades. Womens educational level in
development countries has risen constantly. All regions have increased overall
enrolments. However, regional variation is enormous.
In addition to basic inequalities in access to education and resources, and an unequal
share of the burdens of poverty, women continue to be under-represented in decisionmaking structures. Despite the fact that the majority of the worlds poor are women and
girls, poverty reduction strategies insufficiently address the differential impact of
poverty by gender and inadequately target gender equality as a core objective. Whereas
womens contributions to the global economy are growing rapidly, womens labour
remains undervalued and under-counted in national accounts; and data disaggregated by
gender are still poorly developed.
Further, structural inequalities are strengthened by socio-cultural habits, which contain
negative attitudes and traditions towards womens and girls role in society. There is
still no country in the world in which equality between women and men has been
achieved at all levels and in all areas of society. Less than ten percent of the worlds
MPs are women and only six percent of ministers are women

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Gender Equality and Equity

The term Gender refers to culturally and socially based expectations of the roles and
behaviour of men and women.
Gender Equality means that women and men have equal conditions for realizing their
full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and
cultural development and benefit equally from the results. Because of the current
situation of inequality, it cannot be achieved without the empowerment of women. Both
equality and empowerment are necessary to achieve political, social, economic, cultural
and environmental security.
Gender Equity is the process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness,
measures must often be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages
that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a level playing field.
Provisions for equal opportunities may not take into account the unique challenges that
different individuals and groups face. That is why equity measures are necessary. Equity
leads to equality. Equity is the means and equality is the end.
Equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities for women and men are issues of human
rights as well as preconditions for fair, efficient and sustainable development. Human
rights are also the rights of women and according to UNDPs Human Development
Report for 2003; increased gender equality is the key to the achievement of the
Millennium Goals. Gender equality is not a womens issue, it is a vital societal issue.
Human rights are universal and apply to everyone irrespective of sex.

Gender Equality for Development

Gender has become an increasingly important development issue, not only because of
the human rights aspect, but also from the economic efficiency and sustainability point
of view. Increased gender equality improves preconditions for both economic and
socially sustainable development and for increased growth. Gender equality is crucial
for a fair distribution of resources and benefits the entire development of society.
The main concern of gender equality is how resources and power are divided between
men and women. Development programmes and projects have different implications for
men and women. A gender sensitive approach incorporates gender analysis in planning,
monitoring and evaluation in a systematic effort to document and understand the tasks
and responsibility of the households members and to identify which group will gain or
will be affected by the proposed development activity.
In development cooperation there has been a shift from women specific programmes
and projects to a mainstreaming inclusive approach. Implementing a gender
mainstreaming policy implies that a gender perspective should be attributed to all areas.
Gender mainstreaming, as an institutional and cultural transformation process should
include eliminating gender biases in national and international frameworks and
paradigms. In planning of development programmes and projects, as well as in policy
decision-making and institutional reforms, a gender analysis should be done in order to
clarify possible consequences for women and men respectively. The pursuit of gender
equality should not be limited to increasing the number of women or integrating more

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women into mainstream development. It should include analysis and transformation of

the laws, institutions, structures and behaviours that underpin gender inequalities.

Womens Practical and Strategic needs

Women are subjected to practical as well as strategic needs. The practical needs are
often linked to womens traditionally accepted social role in society, but they are also a
result of the deprivation caused by poverty, relating to material well being and the
access to basic needs, such as housing, water, food, clothing, health and education.
Development projects, which are designed to meet such needs, do, however, not always
address the subordinate role of women or the division of work between women and
men. Womens strategic needs, on the other hand, aim at strengthening the position of
women in relation to men, with the objective to obtain a society where women are not
discriminated. An important principle would then be to focus on both women and men
and the relationship between them, rather than focus on women alone. Men are
extremely important in the process of analysing and promoting gender equality for
development.
It is important to deal with the practical as well as the strategic needs; experiences show
that it is difficult to advance on womens strategic needs if practical needs are not
attended to, especially with focus on womens economic independence. Hence, women
should be included in economic and productive activities in such a way that their
economic independence, opportunities and status are increased.

SCC Promotes Gender Equality and the Empowerment of

Women
The strategic ambition to contribute more clearly and efficiently to increased gender
equality is an integral part of the SCC overall policy paper Directions towards 2007.
We will be focussing on both women and men and their socially inherited gender roles.
Experiences show that increased focus on men and their attitudes and behaviour is
necessary in order to achieve sustainable change; hence it is of great concern to involve
men to end gender inequality.
We would like to see more women in decision-making positions, allowing them
increased influence. We will support activities aimed at altering legislation to ensure
that womens rights are respected. In addition, we will closely follow how our
collaborating organisations guarantee equal opportunities to men and women as
concerns influence and resources. Hence, we are striving at mainstreaming the issues of
gender equality and womens empowerment in all development efforts, complemented
with focused activities or separate projects addressing the practical and strategic needs
of women as members and leaders in collaborating organisations.
Against this background, SCC aims at promoting gender equality and the empowerment
of women by supporting activities which:
Focus on structural and institutional obstacles and gender biases.
Focus on sensitisation and education on gender with further emphasis on men
their role, attitude and behaviour.
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 Focus on womens strategic needs by strengthening the position of women in

relation to men, with the long-term objective to obtain a society where women
are not discriminated.
Increase womens economic independency, opportunities and status in society.
Strengthen women in leadership positions and their influence in decision-making
structures.

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